Saturday Night Blue Origin, the space company for Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Auction closed For a passenger seat on the maiden flight of the New Shepard spacecraft, which is expected to make a short trip at an altitude of 100 kilometers: the auction winner paid $28 million (about 23 million euros) for the seat.
The online auction started a few days ago, and the winner was announced in a small ceremony, although Blue Origin announced that his identity will only be revealed in the coming weeks. According to the company, more than 7,500 people in 159 countries participated in the auction, the proceeds of which will be paid to the Foundation for the Promotion of Future Science Culture, owned by Blue Origin itself.
Auction for the first seat in #Newshepard It concluded with a winning bid of $28 million. The winning bid amount will be donated to the Blue Origin Foundation, Tweet embed. Full replay of the auction webcast: https://t.co/5Vc8IvWxJR pic.twitter.com/IlGbgOFmhx
– blueorigin June 12, 2021
The inaugural New Shepard flight will feature four passengers: Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark, who announced their attendance last week, the auction winner and a fourth passenger whose name will be announced later.
The trip will take place on July 20. The New Shepard consists of a rocket topped with a capsule containing passengers: after takeoff, in about four minutes, the rocket will exceed 100 kilometers in height, allowing passengers to experience microgravity, that is, the absence of weight. At this point the capsule detaches from the capsule and lands on its own, while the capsule reaches the ground with some parachute. Altogether, the flight should take 10 minutes, including only 3 minutes in microgravity conditions. New Shepard will not go beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
The New Shepard rocket is a reusable rocket specifically designed for use in space tourism. After the first flight, it will be used on sub-orbital flights to allow wealthy customers to experience weightlessness for a few minutes before returning to Earth.
(blue origin)
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