Jeff Bezos is off to space with his brother, joins Blue Origin flight

Jeff Bezos is set to be personally launched into space with his brother this summer.

The Blue Origin CEO and former Amazon CEO announced he would be flying aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft, inviting his brother, Mark Bezos, to join him alongside the yet-to-be-announced winner of an auction for a seat.

Bezos’ spaceflight company and space tourism competitor to Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, is aiming to launch its first crewed suborbital spaceflight on July 20.

The news the Bezoses would join the flight was announced in a rather cheesy Instagram video posted by the billionaire himself on Monday. 

“You see the Earth from space and it changes you, it changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity,” says Bezos, whose own company’s relationship with humanity has been uh, complicated. “I want to go on this flight because it’s the thing I’ve wanted to do all my life. It’s an adventure. It’s a big deal for me.”

There’s a weirdly staged moment in which Bezos appears to “surprise” his brother with an invitation to space because it would be “meaningful.”

“I invited my brother to come on this first flight because we’re closest friends,” Jeff says.

“I wasn’t even expecting him to say that he was going to be on the first flight, and then when he asked me to go along I was just awestruck,” says Mark.  “What a remarkable opportunity not only to have this adventure but to be able to do it with my best friend.” 

If you don’t have a billionaire brother BFF, you can bid for the other seat on the flight through Blue Origin’s website until June 12.

The current bid at the time of writing is $2,800,000. So, if you can top that, good for you?