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Blue Origin Auctions New Shepard Seat for $28 Million

posted by martyb on Sunday June 13 2021, @04:16AM   Printer-friendly
from the buying-your-way-into-the-history-books dept.

takyon writes:

Sold! Bidder pays $28m for spare seat on space flight with Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin has sold the spare seat of the company's 20 July New Shepard space rocket blast-off for $28m, the company announced on Saturday.

With 20 active bidders starting at $4.8m during the 10-minute auction, bids escalated in the final three minutes of the sale. Initially, some 7,600 people registered to bid from 159 countries, the company said. The winner, whose identity has not been announced, will join the Amazon founder Bezos and his brother Mark on the flight.

The 11-minute, automated flight – the company's 16th but first carrying humans – will lift off from Van Horn, Texas. The capsule will carry as many as six passengers, though the company has not yet revealed who else will be onboard.

[...] The company has said the auction price will be donated to Blue Origin's foundation, Club for the Future, whose stated mission "is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in Stem (science, technology, engineering, and math) and to help invent the future of life in space".

Also at The Verge and BBC.

Previously: Jeff Bezos' Vision for Space: One Trillion Population in the Solar System
Jeff Bezos Will Fly on Blue Origin's First Human Spaceflight

Related: Branson May Make a Last-Ditch Effort to Beat Bezos Into Space

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 13 2021, @05:34AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 13 2021, @05:34AM (#1144759)

    If people want to pay that much to go then that is their money to spend, though I wonder what the rate will be once he starts actually selling seats. Speaking of Blue Origin's charity, Club for the Future isn't listed on Charity Watch. According to Yahoo News it hasn't been around long enough to file with the IRS yet, and that was the only information I can find about them beyond a generic 'promote STEM careers' sound bite. Nothing about what they actually do or what their plan is going forward. That seems strangely appropriate.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Sunday June 13 2021, @05:54AM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Sunday June 13 2021, @05:54AM (#1144762) Journal

    https://clubforfuture.org/news/ [clubforfuture.org]

    It seems like their big initiative is getting postcards from kids, sending them into space (briefly) with New Shepard, and then mailing them back. Getting a postcard back from space is so inspirational that the kids all decide to become aerospace engineers. The charity is a nice advertisement for Blue Origin.

    They are involved with programs that might put a space-related lesson plan in front of kids:

    https://clubforfuture.org/news/25-000-postcards-soar-to-space-as-club-for-the-future-expands-collaborations-with-leading-stem-organizations/ [clubforfuture.org]

    In addition to giving students direct access to space through Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, Club has expanded its collaborations with several leading STEM organizations to integrate the Postcards to Space program into education initiatives, as well as supported the development of space-focused curriculum and activities.

    Highlights include collaborations with the Challenger Center to develop Destination Moon, a virtual STEM experience for 7th and 8th graders to take a virtual trip to the Moon and explore the lunar surface; Microsoft Hacking STEM to enable students to use a free interactive data science project to investigate how data powers our astronauts, our space missions, and our world; and Project Ianos, a STEM education initiative funded by NASA to develop videos, curriculum, and hands-on learning tools focused on the past, present, and future of human spaceflight for 5th to 8th graders.

    Additionally, the Club’s partnership with Florida-based nonprofit STEM2 Hub on Dream Big Florida, an initiative to bring every student in Florida access to space, will extend into the 2021-2022 school year.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 13 2021, @09:05PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 13 2021, @09:05PM (#1144873)

      So lots of talk and posturing and a token gesture while other charities do the actual work. I hate to be salty about it but that is such a Blue Origin thing to do. Maybe I'm not being fair to them. Blue seems to be able to do things as long as it doesn't involve actually reaching orbit. *sigh*