Jeff Bezos to join winner of seat on Blue Origin's first human space flight

Amazon founder says will travel to space with his brother and auction winner on July 20

Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos and his brother will join the winner of an auction for a seat on Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft, the billionaire said on Monday.

Blue Origin, Bezos' rocket company, is targeting July 20 for its first suborbital sightseeing trip on its spacecraft, a landmark moment in a competition to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel.

“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of travelling to space. On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend,” Bezos wrote on Instagram. 

“Blue Origin was founded with the vision of enabling a future where millions of people are living and working in space to benefit Earth. 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,” reads the company’s social media collateral. 

The company is offering a seat on New Shepard to the winning bidder of an online auction. The current highest bid for that auction is at $2.8 million or Rs 20.38 crores. Bids will be accepted till June 10, and on June 12, there will be a live online auction. 

“Blue Origin has been flight testing New Shepard and its redundant safety systems since 2012. The program has had 15 successful consecutive missions including three successful escape tests, showing the crew escape system can activate safely in any phase of flight,” the company claims on its website.