Jeff Bezos, Amazon and Blue Origin founder announced that he will be a passenger on Blue Origin’s New Shepard’s maiden crewed flight on July 20.
Bezos will be joined on the rocket launch by his brother, Mark Bezos, as well as the winner of an auction for a seat on the rocket.
“I’ve wanted to go to space since I was five years old,” Bezos said in an Instagram post on Monday. “I’ll be traveling with my brother on July 20th. My best friend and I embarked on the greatest adventure.”
Blue Origin plans to launch New Shepard with humans for the first time on July 20. Because New Shepard is a suborbital rocket, the journey to space will be short. From takeoff to landing, the full experience will take roughly 10 to 15 minutes.
Blue Origin said on Monday that auction bidding for a seat on New Shepard has reached $2.8 million, with nearly 6,000 participants from 143 countries. On June 12, the bidding will come to a close with a live auction.
Blue Origin’s educational nonprofit, Club for the Future, will receive the winning bid amount, which will be used to “inspire future generations to seek jobs in STEM and help invent the future of life in space,” according to the company.
The journey will begin at the company’s launch center in West Texas, with the crew capsule separating from New Shepard after an initial boost and continuing on past the Karman Line, which is considered the edge of space at about 62 miles (100 kilometers) in height. Passengers will experience weightlessness for a few minutes before returning to Earth for a parachute-assisted landing near the launch pad.
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