A seat on the famous spaceship flight alongside Jeff Bezos sold within four minutes of the opening of a live auction on Saturday— and it wasn’t cheap.
Closing merely seven minutes after the auction began, the seat sold for a whopping $28 million, thus concluding a month-long bid process for a ride on the Blue Origin’s maiden voyage.
The Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch is set to take place on July 20 and will be the first private commercial space travel flight in history. Bezos, who is Blue Origin’s founder, is apparently an avid space enthusiast and has been striving for years to be the first billionaire to enter space, competing alongside Richard Branson and Elon Musk for the title. “To see the earth from space, changes you,” Bezos said in a video moments before the bidding took place. “It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity.”
He added that his brother Mark will also be joining him on the trip. The auction included over 6,000 competitors from at least 143 different countries.
“Putting the world’s richest man and one of the most recognized figures in business into space is a massive advertisement for space as a domain for exploration, industrialization, and investment,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas earlier this month. With that said, Richard Branson will attempt to head into space before Bezos himself, as he is joining a possible test flight to the edge of space on July 4th weekend aboard the Virgin’s VSS Unity spaceplane.
May the fastest billionaire win.
