Jeff Bezos is going to outer space.
The billionaire businessman announced Monday he will be joining the first crewed spaceflight for the New Shepard, developed by his aerospace company Blue Origin. The trip is scheduled for July 20, two weeks after he is supposed to step-down as CEO of Amazon.
“I want to go on this flight because it’s the thing I’ve wanted to do all my life,” said Bezos in a video announcing the event. “It’s an adventure. It’s a big deal for me.”
According to Blue Origin, Bezos will not be the only passenger. Joining him on the flight is his 57-year-old younger brother Mark Bezos, as confirmed by himself in an Instagram post.
“I wasn’t even expecting him to say that he was going on the first flight,” said the younger Bezos. “And then when he asked me to go along, I was just awestruck. What a remarkable opportunity, not only to have this adventure, but to be able to do it with my best friend.”
There will also be a third guest aboard the spaceflight. This position will be filled via charity auction, with the highest bidding for the seat currently at $3.2m. Five days remain before the deadline for bids.
The flight itself will last for just a few minutes from start to finish. There will be a three-minute period where the crew experience weightlessness in the cabin before they descend back to Earth, where the crew capsule will parachute down. They are expected to land somewhere in the West Texas desert.
Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 when it began as an online bookseller. The multi-billion-dollar company has since branched out into several fields ranging from entertainment, technology, and business. As the company ballooned, so has Bezos’ worth, which is estimated at $186.2 billion, according to Forbes. A number that recently labeled him the richest man in the world.
The aerospace company Blue Origin was founded by Bezos in 2000. They have been creating the New Shepard flight vehicle program since 2012. According to their website, the program has gone through a streak of 15 consecutive successful un-crewed missions. The rocket is named after Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to go to space.
This article was written by Justin Alvarez for BackstageOL.
