A flight to space with Jeff Bezos aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard sold for $28 million
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."
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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.
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Topics Amazon
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
