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The ticket to make a brief trip into space with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos next month has been sold at auction for $ 28 million.
The bidding process, which began in early May, attracted bids from more than 7,000 participants from 159 countries, according to Blue Origin. The price had stood at $ 4.8 million ahead of Saturday’s live auction, which aired online.
The identity of the successful bidder has not yet been made public, but will be revealed in the coming weeks, according to Blue Origin.
Whoever wants to will travel with three other passengers, including Bezos and his younger brother, Mark. The “past and last” passenger will be announced soon, the company said.
Approximately 10 minutes from launch to landing, approximately three of which will be spent in zero gravity, the trip will cost the winning bidder more than $ 9 million per minute spent in space.
The amount of the winning bid will be donated to Club for the Future, the Blue Origin foundation focused on STEM education programs.
The launch is scheduled to take place in Texas on July 20, 15 days after Bezos stepped down as Amazon’s chief executive.
A company spokesman declined to comment on whether the timing of Bezos’ transition to the presidency was related to his desire to make the trip, which will be the company’s first to include human passengers.
“Since I was five, I’ve dreamed of traveling into space,” Bezos said in an Instagram post last week.
“On July 20 I will make this trip with my brother. The biggest adventure, with my best friend ”.
To date, 15 test flights of the New Shepard capsule have been conducted. All have been successful except the first, in April 2015, when the rocket suffered an accidental landing, although the capsule returned to Earth safely.
If successful, the trip with the New Shepard capsule would be the first commercial space flight that would take a civilian beyond the Kármán line, the edge of the internationally recognized space, more than 60 miles above the earth.
However, the Blue Origin calendar would have caused a rush by Virgin Galactic, the competent space tourism company founded by Sir Richard Branson, to advance their plans.
“Look at this space. . . ”The employer he wrote in a recent tweet. The company held a successful test last month.
Blue Origin, which has so far been funded entirely by funds raised by Bezos to sell its shares in Amazon, has not announced any details on prices for future trips, but said “more competitive” bidders will be targeted. of interest for upcoming flights.
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