An anonymous model paid $28 million at auction on Saturday to accompany Jeff Bezos. and his brother on the first manned spaceflight for Blue Origin next month.
The Amazon founder revealed this week that he and his brother Mark will be on board the New Shepard. On July 20 for a 10-minute trip only.
They will be joined by the winner of the charity auction on Saturday, whose identities will be revealed in the coming weeks, a fourth space tourist, yet to be determined, According to Blue Origin’s sales managerAriane Cornell.
The third traveler beat about 20 competitors in an auction which began on May 19 and which aired the last 10 minutes on TV.
Offers reached $4.8 million on ThursdayBut it jumped at the last live auction in increments of $1 million.
Profits, plus the 6% commission held by the auctioneer, He will go to the Blue Origin Foundationfuture club Which aims to inspire future generations to pursue scientific careersTechnology, Engineering and Mathematics.
New Shepard will take off from a desert in West Texas. Then the capsule in which the passengers are traveling separates from the propeller and will bypass the Kerman line, Its height is about 100 km, which is the recognized limit between the atmosphere and Earth space.
Of the ten minutes it takes to fly, travelers will spend four minutes in space, where you can feel weightlessness and observe the curvature of the Earth from space.
The thruster lands independently on a platform three kilometers from the launch siteThree parachutes slow the capsule down, which is descending at a speed of 1.6 kilometers per hour.
Bezos, who announced earlier this year that he would step down as Amazon CEO To spend more time on other projects, Including Blue OriginHe said that flying into space was a dream he had lived all his life.
Blue Origin has conducted dozens of successful tests with New Shepard, although all uninhabited, from its facility in the Guadalupe Mountains, West Texas.
The reusable sub-orbital missile system is named after Alan ShepardThe first American to go into space in 60 years.
Unmanned robotic capsules They have six seats with horizontal backs placed next to large openings.
Several cameras help memorize the few minutes That space tourists suffer from weightlessness.