In an Instagram post, Mr. Bezos said space flight was something he had wanted to do “all my life”. The Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has said he will fly to space with his brother on the first human flight launched by his space company, Blue Origin.
- A dream to fulfill: Jeff Bezos and his brother, Mark, will travel to space on Blue Origin’s first human flight on July 20. They will be joined by the winner of an auction for a seat aboard the flight. The current top bid is $2.8 million. The founder of the retailing giant confirmed he and his brother, Mark, will ride on the first human flight of New Shepard, a suborbital rocket system developed by his aerospace company Blue Origin.
- Importance of the date: “Ever since I was 5 years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space,” said Bezos in a video post on his personal Instagram account. “On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother.” July 20th will be the 52nd anniversary of the 1969 Apollo moon landing by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
- Blue Origin: Blue Origin is hosting an unsealed online bidding period until June 10. Two days later, a live auction will determine the winner. Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to go to space, New Shepard features a capsule housing up to six astronauts. A website detailing the rocket system says the spaceflight will last 11 minutes.
- Humans in space: Human spaceflight is an inherently risky venture. Blue Origin has so far launched New Shepard from its West Texas launch site 15 times since 2012, all without issues related to the crew capsule secured atop the rocket. The capsule designed primarily for space tourists flies vertically with the booster, separates at a set altitude, then deploys parachutes and fires retro rockets to slow its descent before touchdown near the original launchpad.
- Musk Too wants to go: Bezos isn’t the only tech entrepreneur with ambitions beyond Earth. Tesla CEO Elon Musk runs his own aerospace company, SpaceX, which made history in May 2020 by becoming the first private enterprise to launch humans to space from U.S. soil.
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