Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his brother will travel to space on 20 July on a Blue Origin flight- Technology News, Firstpost

FP TrendingJun 08, 2021 16:08:05 IST

Jeff Bezos is all set to travel to space as his company Blue Origin is launching its first passenger-carrying mission on 20 July. The Amazon-billionaire announced in an Instagram post on Monday, 7 June that he will be joined by his brother Mark on the flight. The launch is set for nearly two weeks after he steps down as the chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc. The space organization announced earlier in May that it was preparing to put the first passengers in a New Shepard capsule.

“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of travelling to space,” Bezos said in the Instagram post. “On 20th July, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend,” he added.

Blue Origin’s crewed flight will have its six-seater capsule and 59-foot rocket tear toward the edge of space on an 11-minute flight, aiming to reach over 60 miles above Earth.

Though the company has not announced the price of the regular tickets for the space flight, it said that the winner of a long-auction (that’s still on) will be given one seat. Until Monday, the bidding was at $2.8 million, however, after Blue Origin’s announcement it went up to $3.2 million.

Besides New Shepard, Blue Origin is also developing New Glenn, a towering rocket that may be used to send US government and commercial satellites to orbit and make trips to deep space.

The company, which hoped to participate in NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon by 2024, is now protesting the contract signed by NASA and SpaceX, to build the lunar lander to shuttle astronauts from the moon’s orbit down to the surface.

Blue Origin was founded by Bezos in 2000 and has conducted more than 12 uncrewed test flights to date, at Blue Origin’s facilities in rural Texas which is about 70 miles from Marfa.