Bids For Seat Aboard Jeff Bezos¡¯s Blue Origin Commercial Spacecraft Goes As High As $2 Million

Blue Origin, the rocket company owned by the world¡¯s richest man, Jeff Bezos has revealed that people have offered to pay $2.4 million for a seat on its New Shepard spacecraft. according to a Reuters report.

Reuters

This pitch was in accordance with the first phase of the auction. The second phase is currently underway and is expected to go on till June 10. This process will be concluded after a final phase scheduled for June 12 as a part of a live online auction.

Also Read: Jeff Bezos Offering One Seat To Highest Bidder On Blue Origin's Space Trip In July

Blue Origin is expected to blast off its first suborbital sightseeing trip on its spacecraft on July 20 this year, which will be a historic moment to bring humanity to an era of private commercial space travel.

The New Shepard rocket and capsule combo are capable of carrying up to six passengers on a fully autonomous flight, around 100 kilometres above Earth¡¯s surface into suborbital space.

During its initial phases, Blue Origin had planned on charging its passengers around $200,000 for a seat, based on the appraisal of rival plans from billionaire Richard Branson¡¯s Virgin Galactic. However, it seems like Blue Origin has a slight change in plans here.

Also Read: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Breaks SpaceX's Record For Most Reusable Rocket Flights

Reuters

The rocket company was also recently in the news after it formally challenged the $2.9 billion Moon lander contract that was awarded by NASA to rival private company SpaceX. The protest, according to Blue Origin, accused NASA of moving the goalposts for contract bidders at the very end.

Also Read: NASA Artemis: Musk¡¯s SpaceX And Bezos¡¯s Blue Origin Compete To Take Humanity To The Moon

The statement read, "NASA has executed a flawed acquisition for the Human Landing System programme and moved the goalposts at the last minute. Their decision eliminates opportunities for competition, significantly narrows the supply base, and not only delays but also endangers America's return to the moon. Because of that, we've filed a protest with the GAO."

The awarded contract is aimed to build a spaceship that would take NASA astronauts to the Moon as soon as 2024. It chose SpaceX over Blue Origin and defence contractor Dynetics.