{"id":17103,"date":"2025-07-30T23:24:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T15:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origin-sets-the-date-for-controversial-crypto-billionaires-28m-trip-to-space\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T23:24:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T15:24:27","slug":"blue-origin-sets-the-date-for-controversial-crypto-billionaires-28m-trip-to-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origin-sets-the-date-for-controversial-crypto-billionaires-28m-trip-to-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin sets the date for controversial crypto billionaire\u2019s $28M trip to space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Illustration:
A digital rendering shows crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun in a spacesuit. (Justin Sun via X \/ Twitter in 2021)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture says it\u2019ll launch crypto billionaire Justin Sun on a suborbital space trip on Sunday, four years after he put in a precedent-setting $28 million bid for a ticket.<\/p>\n

Sun and five other people will be participating in Blue Origin\u2019s NS-34 mission, which will be the company\u2019s 14th crewed spaceflight. The launch window at Blue Origin\u2019s Launch Site One in West Texas opens at 7:30 a.m. CT (5:30 a.m. PT) Sunday, and BlueOrigin.com will stream coverage of the countdown starting at T-minus-30 minutes, the company said today.<\/p>\n

In a posting to the X social-media platform, Sun said he was \u201cproud to join Blue Origin\u2019s NS-34 mission and continue encouraging youth to pursue their dreams in science and space.\u201d And in a follow-up posting, Sun claimed the title of \u201cthe youngest Chinese commercial astronaut.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long and not-always-smooth road to space for Sun, the 35-year-old founder of the Tron blockchain venture.<\/p>\n

Until recently, Sun was the subject of a federal investigation over alleged market manipulation and unregistered sales of crypto asset securities. That case was put on hold in February, and a couple of months later, Sun earned a place of prominence at a crypto dinner with President Donald Trump by purchasing the biggest share of the $TRUMP meme coin.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear what impact Sun\u2019s travails have had on the timing of his spaceflight. Back in 2021, Sun was the winning bidder in an auction for a seat on Blue Origin\u2019s first crewed flight, which was set for later that year. However, Blue Origin said soon afterward that the winner \u2014 who at that time was anonymous \u2014 had to pass up the first flight due to scheduling conflicts.<\/p>\n

When Sun was revealed as the winning bidder in late 2021, Blue Origin said that he\u2019d fly in late 2022. At the time, Sun said he would bring along five hand-picked \u201cspace warriors\u201d for a mission he called \u201cSea of Stars,\u201d but that part of the plan apparently went by the wayside (along with the timeline that Sun originally had in mind).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Six crew members are due to fly on Blue Origin\u2019s NS-34 suborbital space mission. (Blue Origin Photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sun\u2019s five crewmates for NS-34 reflect varied backgrounds. Here\u2019s the list:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Arvinder (Arvi) Singh Bahal<\/strong> is a real-estate investor and adventurer who was born in Agra, India, and is now a naturalized U.S. citizen. <\/li>\n
  • G\u00f6khan Erdem<\/strong> is a Turkish business executive and a board member of Erdem Holding, a diverse group of companies operating in the energy, telecommunications, construction and manufacturing sectors.<\/li>\n
  • Deborah Martorell<\/strong> is a Puerto Rican meteorologist and journalist. Her reporting on environmental and space topics has garnered eight Emmy Awards and two Awards of Excellence in Science Reporting from the American Meteorological Society. <\/li>\n
  • Lionel Pitchford<\/strong> is an Englishman who has spent the last four decades in Spain working as a teacher, translator and tour guide. He is the founder of a nonprofit in Nepal dedicated to serving disadvantaged children and girls, and has run an orphanage in Katmandu for more than 30 years.<\/li>\n
  • James (J.D.) Russell<\/strong> is the founder of Alpha Funds, a technology-focused venture capital company; and Alpha Aerospace, an aerospace consulting and solutions company. He first flew to space on Blue Origin\u2019s NS-28 mission last November.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    If all goes according to plan, Blue Origin\u2019s autonomously controlled New Shepard rocket ship will send the NS-34 crew members on what\u2019s expected to be a 10-minute-long suborbital space odyssey. They\u2019ll experience a few minutes of zero gravity and get an astronaut\u2019s-eye view of Earth beneath the black sky of space. At the end of the ride, they\u2019ll make a parachute-assisted touchdown not far from their launch pad.<\/p>\n

    Blue Origin doesn\u2019t typically reveal how much its customers are paying for their flights. Sun\u2019s case is the rare exception, due to the fact that the 2021 auction was conducted publicly. Blue Origin said the $28 million from Sun\u2019s bid went to its nonprofit foundation, the Club for the Future. The foundation, in turn, selected 19 space-focused nonprofits to receive grants amounting to $1 million each.<\/p>\n

    Sun isn\u2019t the only controversial crypto figure to take a trip on New Shepard. In February, Blue Origin withheld the identity of one of its spacefliers on the NS-30 mission. An analysis of photos and references to the flier in public records, including the Federal Aviation Administration\u2019s list of spaceflight participants, suggested that the mystery man was an Australian crypto entrepreneur named Russell Wilson (not to be confused with the former Seahawks quarterback).<\/p>\n

    In response to emailed inquiries, a Blue Origin representative told GeekWire that the company works with a third party to accept crypto payments for spaceflights.<\/p>\n

    This report was originally published on July 21 and has been updated to reflect Blue Origin\u2019s announcement of the NS-34 launch date.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A digital rendering shows crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun in a spacesuit. (Justin Sun via X \/ Twitter in 2021) Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture says it\u2019ll launch crypto billionaire Justin Sun on a suborbital space trip on Sunday, four years after he put in a precedent-setting $28 million bid for a ticket. Sun and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,4429,4430,1250,493,4402],"class_list":["post-17103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-crypto","tag-justin-sun","tag-new-shepard","tag-space-tourism","tag-suborbital-spaceflight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}