Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will travel to space in July on Blue Origin rocket

 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will fly on the first space flight from his rocket company Blue Origin on July 20, along with his brother.

(Picture: Reuters)

HIGHLIGHTS

• Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will fly on the first space flight from his rocket company Blue Origin on July 20.
• In May, Blue Origin, announced that its first flight aboard its New Shepard rocket, designed to carry up to six tourists per flight.
• The auction will end on June 12 and has a high bid of $2,800,000. 

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will fly on the first space flight from his rocket company Blue Origin on July 20, along with his brother. In addition to Jeff Bezos and his brother, one seat is reserved for the winning bidder of an ongoing online auction. The auction will end on June 12 and has a high bid of $2,800,000. In May, Blue Origin had announced that its first flight aboard its New Shepard rocket which is designed to carry up to six tourists per flight, would auction off one seat to the highest bidder.

“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. #GradatimFerociter,” Bezos posted on Instagram along with a video.

“You see the earth from space and it changes you. It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity. It’s one Earth,” Bezos says in the video. “I want to go on this flight because it’s the thing I’ve wanted to do all my life. It’s an adventure. It’s a big deal for me.”

Bezos will fly to the edge of space in Blue Origin’s reusable rocket New Shepard. The booster is topped by a gumdrop-shaped Crew Capsule with space for six passengers inside and large windows, The Verge reports. Once the rocket reaches Kármán line, 100 kilometers above sea level, the capsule will detach from the booster, allowing those inside to view the curvature of the earth and experience weightlessness. The booster and capsule will land in the West Texas desert with the help of parachutes.

The auction was held in three parts of which the first phase, from May 5 to May 19, allowed people to bid any amount on the website. After May 19, the bids were unsealed, and on June 12, Blue Origin will hold a live auction to determine the winner. The money raised at the auction will be donated to Blue Origin's foundation, Club for the Future, which promotes STEM education initiatives, the company noted.

Last month, Bezos announced that he would formally step down as the Chief Executive Officer of Amazon on July 5. Bezos wrote a letter to his employees in February informing them about his decision to step down as the CEO. He will now take over as the executive chairman of the company in the third quarter of this year. Bezos will be replaced by the head of Amazon’s cloud division Amazon Web Services (AWS) Andy Jassy.