The Very First Seat On New Shepard Sells For A Stunning $28 Million

Blue Origin has concluded the online auction for the very first seat on New Shepard with a winning bid of $28 million. Nearly 7,600 people registered to bid from 159 countries.

The winning bidder will fly to space on New Shepard’s first human flight on July 20, and will join Blue Origin founder, Jeff Bezos, and his brother, Mark.

The winning bid amount will be donated to Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future, whose mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and to help invent the future of life in space.

The name of the auction winner will be released in the weeks following the auction’s conclusion. Then, the fourth and final crew member, heretofore anonymous, will be announced.

The program was initiated on the 60th anniversary of Alan Shepard's history making flight in which he became the first American to fly to space. In the decades since, fewer than 600 astronauts have been to space above the Kármán Line to see the borderless Earth and the thin limb of our atmosphere. Blue Origin notes that they all say this experience changes them.  

Blue Origin named their launch vehicle after Alan Shepard to honor his historic flight. New Shepard has flown 15 successful consecutive missions to space and back above the Kármán Line through a meticulous and incremental flight program to test its multiple redundant safety systems.

FMI: www.blueorigin.com