It’s been a long month of bidding, but Jeff Bezos is officially going to have more company than just his brother during the Amazon founder’s upcoming inaugural trip into outer space.
Blue Origin’s extended auction for an open seat aboard the July 20 launch of New Shepard closed on Saturday. The winning bidder isn’t yet known — their identity will be revealed in the coming weeks — but the final price for that ticket landed at $28 million.
All proceeds collected from the auction will go to Club for the Future, a Blue Origin-owned and operated nonprofit “whose mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and to help invent the future of life in space.”
There’s still one more passenger joining the Bezos brothers and our mystery auction winner. Blue Origin noted that the identity of that final passenger will also be revealed soon, and sometime after the top bidder is revealed.
New Shepard is named for NASA astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to visit space. Its centerpiece is a six-person Crew Capsule where the passengers will spend the entirety of the flight. Much like Tesla’s Falcon 9 rocket, New Shepard’s rocket will head back to Earth’s surface and land for future reuse after Crew Capsule detaches.
Stay tuned for more news in the coming weeks as the July 20 launch for New Shepard gets closer.