{"id":17537,"date":"2021-06-12T18:04:33","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T10:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origin-sells-seat-on-suborbital-spaceship-for-28-million-after-fast-and-furious-bidding\/"},"modified":"2021-06-12T18:04:33","modified_gmt":"2021-06-12T10:04:33","slug":"blue-origin-sells-seat-on-suborbital-spaceship-for-28-million-after-fast-and-furious-bidding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origin-sells-seat-on-suborbital-spaceship-for-28-million-after-fast-and-furious-bidding\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin sells seat on suborbital spaceship for $28 million after fast and furious bidding"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_625435\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-625435\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-625435\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/210612-blueorigin-630x358.jpg\" alt=\"$28 million bidding\" width=\"630\" height=\"358\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/210612-blueorigin-630x358.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/210612-blueorigin-768x436.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/210612-blueorigin.jpg 944w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-625435\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">RR Auction\u2019s Steve Little shouts \u201cSold!\u201d and closes off bidding for a seat on Blue Origin\u2019s suborbital spaceship, at the price of $28 million. (Blue Origin via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An open spot on the first-ever crew to fly on Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard suborbital spaceship was auctioned off today for $28 million, which is millions more than the International Space Station\u2019s first paying tourist reportedly paid 20 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>It took about eight minutes for RR Auction to wind up the bidding at its Boston headquarters. That\u2019s a couple of minutes less than the expected duration of the New Shepard mission, set for July 20 at Blue Origin\u2019s suborbital spaceport in West Texas. And it\u2019s a few minutes more than the yet-to-be-identified winner is expected to spend in zero-G during the flight.<\/p>\n<p>The winner, currently known only as Bidder No. 107, will experience about three minutes of weightlessness and a big-picture view of the curving Earth below the black sky of space. It\u2019ll be one of the priciest per-minute trips in history. But it\u2019ll also go down in the space history books, in part because Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and Amazon, will be one of the crewmates.<\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t take long for speculation about the winner\u2019s identity to begin \u2014 with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Bezos\u2019 biggest billionaire space rival, thrown into the mix:<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1403776824606330887&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2021%2Fblue-origin-sells-seat-suborbital-spaceship-28-million-fast-furious-bidding%2F&amp;sessionId=f4c0682dcec56b969daecba245528ca931162c8a&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"1403776824606330887\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782798727147906647=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Rumor is Elon is winning bid, and gave seat to Lucky Swisher (mom of @karaswisher).  <\/p>\n<p>Next level re the feud.  Stay tuned. https:\/\/t.co\/JlVsuvOOSJ<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Scott Galloway (@profgalloway) June 12, 2021<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin has put the New Shepard suborbital launch system through 15 uncrewed tests, but July\u2019s flight will be the first to put people on board for an actual launch. The \u201cfirst-to-fly\u201d distinction, plus the chance to spend some time with America\u2019s richest individual, undoubtedly added to the value proposition.<\/p>\n<p>Bidding on the open seat began last month, and before today, the high bid stood at $4.8 million. Once RR Auction\u2019s Steve Little kicked off the live bidding, the price quickly escalated \u2014 at times, in increments of $1 million.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe more you pay for it, the more you enjoy it,\u201d Little said during a rare lull in the bidding. He said more than 20 qualified buyers signed up for the live auction. RR Auction will tack a 6% buyers\u2019 commission onto the $28 million purchase price.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin\u2019s director of astronaut strategy and sales, Ariane Cornell, said during today\u2019s webcast that the winner\u2019s identity won\u2019t be revealed until all the paperwork is signed, probably within the next couple of weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Club for the Future, Blue Origin\u2019s nonprofit educational foundation. \u201cWith $28 million, we\u2019re going to inspire a lot of kids,\u201d Cornell said.<\/p>\n<p>She said nearly 7,600 people from 159 countries registered to participate in the online auction over the course of its five-week run.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo say that we are humbled is an incredible understatement,\u201d Cornell said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Replay - New Shepard First Seat Auction\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JUcQmETFmds?start=746&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The final price is more than the roughly $20 million that millionaire investor Dennis Tito is said to have paid for the first tourist trip to the International Space Station in 2001. (In inflation-adjusted terms, Tito still paid more.) But it\u2019s less than the $55 million or so that private astronauts are thought to be currently paying for trips to the space station in SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon capsule.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos announced on Monday that he and his brother, Mark Bezos, would be on next month\u2019s flight, which is timed to coincide with the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. The auction winner would turn the crew into a trio, but Cornell said there\u2019ll actually be a quartet on board. \u201cThe fourth and final crew member will also be announced soon, so stay tuned for that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The four spacefliers will require only a couple of days of training in advance of what\u2019s expected to be a roughly 10-minute up-and-down flight at Blue Origin\u2019s West Texas facility. They\u2019ll stay at an \u201castronaut village\u201d that Blue Origin has built at Launch Site One, with living quarters that have been named after Mercury astronauts and female aviation pioneers.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin says its fliers will ride the company\u2019s autonomously piloted, fully reusable New Shepard spaceship above the 100-kilometer (62-mile) altitude that serves as the currently accepted international boundary of outer space, also known as the Karman Line.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, Virgin Galactic, the suborbital space travel venture founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, is targeting the 50-mile altitude that the Federal Aviation Administration has established as the standard for awarding commercial astronaut wings. After more than a decade of development, Virgin Galactic seems to be on track to begin flying customers at New Mexico\u2019s Spaceport America by next year.<\/p>\n<p>About 600 people have signed up for Virgin Galactic\u2019s suborbital spaceflights, paying reserved fares that are in the range of $250,000. That fare is certain to go up when Virgin Galactic resumes sales, particularly in light of the results of today\u2019s auction.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin, meanwhile, is taking a cagey approach to spaceflight sales. It has never publicly announced a ticket price, although CEO Bob Smith said in 2019 that he expected the price to amount to \u201chundreds of thousands of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Will the price now be dramatically higher than that? Apparently, it depends on what the market will bear. In any case, Cornell said today\u2019s auction will set the tone for filling up the flights that follow next month\u2019s milestone launch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are going to contact the most competitive bidders from today to offer them access to those early flights,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RR Auction\u2019s Steve Little shouts \u201cSold!\u201d and closes off bidding for a seat on Blue Origin\u2019s suborbital spaceship, at the price of $28 million. (Blue Origin via YouTube) An open spot on the first-ever crew to fly on Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard suborbital spaceship was auctioned off today for $28 million, which is millions more [&hellip;]<\/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":[509,1250],"class_list":["post-17537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-new-shepard"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17537"}],"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=17537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}