Yahoo Finance $3.6 million: The price for Jeff Bezos to take you to space
Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, wants to “build a road to space” and it will cost you close to US$3 million to get the first seat to space.
In an announcement at the start of this month, Blue Origin said the bidding was open for the first passenger to take a trip out of this world.
The bidding opened to the public and has already garnered plenty of attention with the current top bid sitting at $3.6 million (US$2.8 million).
The flight will take off on July 20 this year with its first astronaut crew and an extra seat for one, very wealthy, person.
The test flights have lasted between 10 to 12 minutes, so should the official flight be the same length, it would cost between US$250,000 to US$300,000 per minute.
PICTURE
The current silent auction will become a live bidding event on June 12 and the highest bidder at the end will take the seat.
Blue Origin said the winning bid will be donated to its own foundation, Club for the Future, to “inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and help invent the future of life in space”.
The launch vehicle, The New Shepard, is named after the first American astronaut to fly to space 60 years ago, Alan Shepard.
“In the decades since, fewer than 600 astronauts have been to space above the Kármán Line to see the borderless Earth and the thin limb of our atmosphere. They all say this experience changes them,” Blue Origin said.
“We named our launch vehicle after Alan Shepard to honor his historic flight.”
The rocket has flown 15 successful consecutive missions to space and back above the Kármán Line where it has tested the flight program and all safety systems.
“Now, it’s time for astronauts to climb onboard. This seat will change how you see the world,” Blue Origin said.
Bezos founded the company with the vision of “enabling a future where millions of people are living and working in space to benefit Earth” the website said.
“In order to preserve Earth, Blue Origin believes that humanity will need to expand, explore, find new energy and material resources, and move industries that stress Earth into space.”
And Bezos is not the only billionaire with promises of sending the general public to space. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has sold more than 600 tickets at US$250,000 a pop for seats on its earliest space flight.
Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter, and subscribe to the free Fully Briefed daily newsletter.
