Courtesy-CNBC
To get a seat alongside Jeff Bezos on board the first crewed spaceflight of the billionaire’s company Blue Origin, a mystery bidder paid $28 million at auction on Saturday. Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch vehicle shall be boarded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark on 20th July to fly to the edge of space and back as revealed by Jeff Bezos.
The winner of the charity auction held on Saturday will be joining the Bezos brothers. The identity of the person is unknown and as yet unnamed space tourist. The Blue Origin tweeted that the identity of the auction winner shall be released in weeks following the auction’s conclusion, then the fourth and final crew member will be announced.
Here’s a link to Jeff Bezos’s Instagram post regarding the announcement today that he and his brother Mark will join the auction winner on New Shepard’s first human flight on July 20th. https://t.co/2yfIEmTvv4
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) June 7, 2021
Lasting for 10 minutes, the New Shepard trip will commence by taking off from a desert in Texas, four of which passengers will spend the time above the Karman line that marks the recognized boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space.
The capsule will separate from its boosters after lift-off, thereby spending four minutes at an altitude exceeding 60 miles (100 kilometres) during which time the curvature of the Earth can be observed along with experiencing weightlessness by those on board. On a pad two miles away from the launch site, the boosters will be autonomously landing on while the capsule floats back to the surface with three parachutes that slow it down to a speed of around a mile per hour as it lands.
In the auction launched on May 19, the winner bidder beat out around 20 rivals.