Ticket to fly into space with Jeff Bezos auctioned for $28 million

The cost to fly into space for 11 minutes with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is out of this world.

A ticket for a flight into the heavens on the New Shepard rocket sold for $28 million in a charity auction conducted Saturday by Blue Origin LLC, the space company founded by Bezos.

With a 6% buyer’s premium commission added, the total cost will be $29,680,000, The Wall Street Journal reported. The auction was hosted by Boston-based RR Auction.

The auction for the very first seat on #NewShepard has concluded with a winning bid of $28 million. The winning bid amount will be donated to Blue Origin’s foundation, @ClubforFuture. Full replay of the auction webcast: https://t.co/5Vc8IvWxJR pic.twitter.com/IlGbgOFmhx
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) June 12, 2021

The winner, who was not revealed Saturday, will fly to the edge of space with Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos and a fourth crew member, NPR reported.

Blue Origin said it will reveal the name of the auction winner in the coming weeks.

>> Jeff Bezos to be Blue Origin’s first space passenger

Bidding opened at $4.8 million but topped $20 million within the first few minutes of the auction, CNBC reported. Proceeds from the auction will be donated to Blue Origin’s education-focused nonprofit Club for the Future, which supports children interested in future STEM careers.

Blue Origin sales director Ariane Cornell said during a livestream of Saturday’s auction that 7,600 people from 159 countries had registered and were able to bid in the auction.

The flight is expected to take off from Blue Origin’s facilities in the west Texas town of Van Horn on July 20, CNN reported.

The liftoff date coincides with the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The New Shepard has no pilot, The Wall Street Journal reported, Passengers will be allowed to move around the cabin during the weightless period, Blue Origin said.

The capsule is designed to parachute back to land, the newspaper reported.

Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000, and the company has had 15 test launches over the past six years, according to CNN. He is stepping down as Amazon’s CEO on July 5 after leading the company for more than two decades, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Bezos has invested as much as $1 billion annually toward the project, the newspaper reported.