Amazon.com founder Bezos’ aerospace business Blue Origin is preparing for liftoff this summer with online bidding for the spacecraft’s first flight seat, with the highest bid coming in at $2.8 million this afternoon.
The public online bidding phase will end on June 10, and Blue Origin will hold a final instant relay online auction on June 12, with proceeds going to Blue Origin’s charitable foundation.
Blue Origin expects to launch the New Shepard reusable sub-orbital rocket system from West Texas on July 20.
After 15 successful test flights without a crew on board, New Shepard will be the first manned space flight for Blue Origin, which was founded in 2000.
In a total of 10 minutes of space travel, passengers will spend four minutes above the Karman line, the dividing line between space and Earth’s atmosphere.
After the rocket lifts off, the capsule will separate from the rocket thrusters and will remain at an altitude of more than 100 kilometers for four minutes, during which time up to six passengers in the capsule can experience zero-gravity flight and can also view the arc of the Earth from space.
The first phase of secret bidding began on May 5, and the second phase of open online bidding began today with a starting bid of $1.4 million.
A spokesman for Blue Source said the auction had more than 5,200 bidders from 136 countries participating.
Recent Comments