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

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos¡¯ rocket company Blue Origin announced that it will launch its first astronaut crew to space via its New Shepard spacecraft on July 20, in what could trigger private commercial space travel.

On July 20th, #NewShepard will fly its first astronaut crew to space. We are offering one seat on this first flight to the winning bidder of an online auction. Anyone can place an opening bid by going to https://t.co/6DpTdTxo36. #GradatimFerociter pic.twitter.com/jBMFYX7xHg

¡ª Blue Origin (@blueorigin) May 5, 2021

The company also said that one seat on the first crewed launch will be up for grabs to the winning bidder of a five-week online auction, which ends with a live auction on June 12. The winning bid amount will be donated to Blue Origin¡¯s nonprofit foundation.

ALSO READ: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Breaks SpaceX's Record For Most Reusable Rocket Flights

Blue Origin

New Shepard is Blue Origin¡¯s reusable suborbital rocket system designed to take passengers on a straight up-and-down trip that briefly goes above 100km (62 miles), or the so-called K¨¢rm¨¢n line--the internationally recognized boundary of space.

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

That is high enough to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the planet before the pressurised capsule returns to Earth under parachutes, Reuters reported.

A beautiful landing back in the West Texas desert today. pic.twitter.com/ii3LJriSFc

¡ª Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 14, 2021

Blue Origin says that the spacecraft is completely autonomous and features a spacious and pressurized crew capsule that is environmentally-controlled for comfort and has massive observation windows for every passenger, which the company claims, is the largest to have flown to space.

Quite a view today ?. pic.twitter.com/boUIfJXjCa

¡ª Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 14, 2021

¡°Whether you are an astronaut flying with Blue Origin or sending a payload to space, your 11-minute flight on New Shepard will be the experience of a lifetime,¡± the company says.

Blue Origin

"Only 569 people have ever been over the K¨¢rm¨¢n Line. With our New Shepard vehicle, we're about to change that and change it dramatically," said Ariane Cornell, Blue Origin's director of astronaut sales.

The 15th successful launch of #NewShepard and the second of this booster and capsule. pic.twitter.com/BiTYJNPaxE

¡ª Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 14, 2021

On July 20, astronauts will be flying aboard the New Shepard for the first time. But Blue Origin has tested the rocket and capsule more than a dozen times without crew since 2012, including three successful escape tests that showed the crew escape system can activate safely in any phase of flight.

The fully reusable space vehicle, which stands 18m tall and 4m wide, launches vertically, with the booster carrying the passenger capsule to 76km high, where it detaches and lands in a controlled manner at a concrete pad.

Never gets old. Second consecutive landing for this particular booster. #NewShepard pic.twitter.com/Lia4GDX9yO

¡ª Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 14, 2021

Passengers will experience about three minutes of weightlessness at the top of the climb, before dropping back down to the ground under three parachutes.

Virgin Galactic also aims to fly private customers in early 2022, while Elon Musk¡¯s SpaceX is planning to launch four passengers on an orbital flight later this year, in what is touted as the first all-civilian spaceflight in history. Meanwhile, Russia's Energia space corporation plans to take the first tourist on a space walk in 2023.