Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Monday announced that he, along with his brother Mark will fly on the first crewed space flight from his rocket company Blue Origin next month. He revealed this information via a video on Instagram.
In the video, the billionaire Bezos can be seen inviting his brother for a trip outside the earth. He says that traveling into space has been a lifelong dream for him and the journey would be meaningful if his brother accompanies him for the ride.
“You see the earth from space and it changes you. It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity. It’s one Earth. I want to go on this flight because it is the thing I have wanted to do all my life. It's an adventure and it's a big deal for me,” said Jeff Bezos in the video.
“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space. On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend,” said Bezos captioning the post.
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In addition to Jeff and Mark Bezos, one seat will be claimed by the winner of an auction for the seat on the first space flight from Blue Origin. The auction will end on June 12th and currently, the highest bid is $2,800,000.
Besides Bezos, other millionaires like Elon Musk and Richard Branson have been investing billions on their rocket startups, but he will actually travel into space on a rocket developed by his own company.
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The spacecraft set to fly into space is a New Shepard Rocket-and-capsule combo. It is designed to autonomously fly six passengers more than 62 miles above Earth into suborbital space. The distance is high enough to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the planet before the pressurized capsule returns to earth under parachutes.
The capsule has undergone 15 tests, none of which had any passengers onboard. It features six observation windows. “The observation windows are nearly three times as tall as those on a Boeing 747 jetliner and the largest ever used in space.
Currently, the rocket startup is aiming for July 20 for its first suborbital sightseeing trip.