Blue Origin announced Saturday that the winning bid for a trip to space with Jeff Bezos topped out at $28 million, according to a press release
Nearly 7,600 people registered to bid on an 11-minute trip aboard the “New Shepard” with Bezos and his brother, Mark, according to a Saturday press release from Blue Origin. (RELATED: Jeff Bezos Announces He’s Going To Space With His Brother)
The winner also has to pay 6% of the price as a buyer’s commission, according to the New York Times. This means, in total, whoever won the auction will be paying around $30 million for the journey.
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According to the company, the name of the person who won the auction will be released in about two weeks.
The auction winner, Bezos, Mark, and a fourth astronaut whose name has not yet been released will be flying on the spacecraft, the Times reported.
Blue Origin will donate the $28 million paid to Blue Origin’s foundation, “Club for the Future.” According to Blue Origin, the foundation seeks “to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and to help invent the future of life in space.”
New Shepard is named after the first American to visit space, Alan Shepard, who went to space in 1961, according to The Times. New Shepard has gone through 15 uncrewed test flights.
The spacecraft is reportedly manufactured to carry six persons on short suborbital flights. These are flights where the craft goes over the 62-mile altitude regarded as the border with outer space. However, instead of increasing velocity to the point needed to enter orbit, New Shepard will immediately come back to Earth, according to The Times report.