Many people dream of going to space, but only a few actually get the opportunity to do so. Your chances are considerably better if you have billions of dollars like Jeff Bezos, who plans to live out that very dream himself. The Amazon founder has recently announced that he will be taking his own rocket into space next month, representing one of six crew members flying in a Blue Origin spacecraft for the first time.
He will be taking his brother, Mark Bezos, along with him and there will also be an empty seat in the capsule available to one lucky buyer. The entire trip will only be 10-minutes long, but it will put Bezos' Blue Origin ahead of Elon Musk's SpaceX in terms of CEO-manned space flights.
"I want to go on this flight because it’s a thing I’ve wanted to do all my life,” said Bezos in an Instagram video. “It’s an adventure. It’s a big deal for me.”
The flight is scheduled to take place 15 days after Bezos steps down as Amazon CEO on July 5. Despite having a $164 billion stake in the company, Bezos has said he would like to focus more of his time and efforts on Blue Origin and its space initiatives. Bezos is hoping that a successful flight to space will pave the way for his company to launch its own space tourism business.
"To see the Earth from space, it changes you. It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity."
Bezos' space flight will end up occurring before Richard Branson's. The English business magnate announced he would be taking his own rocket to space via Virgin Galactic as well, albeit later this year. Musk, on the other hand, has no space flights scheduled for himself anytime soon—however, he has managed to send 10 astronauts to the International Space Station over the past year.
Blue Origin's fifteenth and most recent test flight was conducted in April, and the capsule ended up reaching an altitude of 106 kilometers. The next flight will be manned by Bezos and his team, and it will take place on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
Currently, the bid for the empty seat is at $2.8 million, with no potential buyers as of yet. The auction will officially conclude on Saturday and the money will be donated to Club for the Future, which is Blue Origin's educational foundation.
