A seat on a space trip with billionaire Jeff Bezos was sold for $ 28 million during a live auction on Saturday, completing the month-long bidding process for the sightseeing tour on Blue Origin’s maiden voyage next month.
Within four minutes of the live phone auction opening on Saturday, bids reached over $ 20 million. Bidding ended seven minutes after the auction started. The identity of the winner – believed to be an ultra-wealthy space enthusiast – was not immediately disclosed.
The launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard booster on July 20 from West Texas would be a milestone as US firms move into a new era of private commercial space travel.
Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and managing director of Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), the richest man in the world and a lifelong space enthusiast, has competed against aspiring billionaire aircraft Richard Branson and Elon Musk to be the first of the three atmosphere to travel beyond the earth.
“Seeing the earth from space changes you. It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity,” said Bezos in a video before the last call for tenders, adding that his brother Mark will accompany him on the journey.
When the month-long bidding process that led to the live auction ended on Thursday, the winning total was $ 4.8 million, fueled by submissions from more than 6,000 people from at least 143 countries, Blue Origin said.
JEFF BEZOS IS GOING TO TRAVEL IN SPACE WITH THE BLUE ORIGIN ROCKET
“Bringing the richest man in the world and one of the best-known business figures into space is a massive advertisement for space as a domain for exploration, industrialization and investment,” Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas told his earlier this month Customers.
While funds raised at the event will be donated to charity, Blue Origin hopes to generate buzz for its burgeoning suborbital tourism business.
However, Branson, who founded Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (SPCE.N), could attempt to steal Bezos’ thunder by taking part in a possible test flight to the edge of space aboard Virgin’s VSS Unity spaceplane on the 4th of July weekend Thing said.
The race is fueled by optimism that space travel will become mainstream as new technologies prove their worth and costs come down.
Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, as well as Musk’s SpaceX, have also discussed using their rockets to connect distant global cities. UBS says the long-haul travel market could be valued at more than $ 20 billion, though several obstacles like aviation safety certification could cause plans to fail.
Blue Origin has not disclosed its pricing strategy for future trips.
Reuters reported in 2018 that based on a market study and other considerations, Blue Origin planned to charge passengers at least $ 200,000 for the ride, although its mindset may have changed.
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