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Robert Pearlman
Blue Origin release
Watch Live: Auction for First Seat on New Shepard
Blue Origin will broadcast the live auction for the very first seat on New Shepard on Saturday, June 12th, on BlueOrigin.com. The webcast will begin at 12:45 p.m. EDT / 16:45 UTC.
After a month-long process with nearly 6,000 participants from 143 countries – the current high bid stands at $3.5 million.
Anyone interested in bidding in the live auction must register by June 10th. Registration details can be found at BlueOrigin.com.
The winning bidder will fly to space on New Shepard's first human flight on July 20th and will join Blue Origin founder, Jeff Bezos, and his brother Mark.
The name of the auction winner will be released in the weeks following the auction's conclusion.
The winning bid amount will be donated to Blue Origin's foundation, Club for the Future, whose mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and to help invent the future of life in space.
With a high bid of $28 million, an unnamed individual has won the chance to join the richest person on Earth on a flight into space.
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' commercial spaceflight company, concluded its two-week-long competition for the first seat on board its New Shepard launch vehicle with a live auction on Saturday (June 12). The bidding, which the company streamed live online, soared from the opening $4.8 million to the hammer of $28 million in just under seven minutes.
A woman who sought the same opportunity as NASA's Mercury astronauts will now achieve her lifelong dream flying aboard a vehicle named for the first American to launch into space.
Blue Origin announced on Thursday (July 1) that Wally Funk, one of the so-called "Mercury 13," will join the company's founder, Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark and the winner of a $28 million auction (who is still to be named) on the first crewed flight of the New Shepard launch vehicle, set to lift off on July 20. At 82 years old, Funk will become the oldest person to fly into space.
Robert Pearlman
Blue Origin release
First Paying Customer on New Shepard Will Be the Youngest to Fly to Space
Today, Blue Origin announced Oliver Daemen will be the first paying customer to fly on board New Shepard, marking the beginning of commercial operations for the program. He will join Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, and Wally Funk aboard the first human flight on July 20. At 18-years-old and 82-years-young, Oliver Daemen and Wally Funk represent the youngest and oldest astronauts to travel to space.
The winner of Blue Origin's auction, who has asked to remain anonymous at this time, has chosen to fly on a future New Shepard mission due to scheduling conflicts. Club for the Future announced this week the auction gift has enabled Club to donate $1 million to 19 non-profit organizations ($19 million in total), all of which are working to support the future of living and working in space.
"We thank the auction winner for their generous support of Club for the Future and are honored to welcome Oliver to fly with us on New Shepard," said Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin. "This marks the beginning of commercial operations for New Shepard, and Oliver represents a new generation of people who will help us build a road to space."
Flying on New Shepard will fulfill a lifelong dream for Oliver, who has been fascinated by space, the Moon, and rockets since he was four. Oliver graduated from high school in 2020 and took a gap year before continuing his studies to obtain his private pilot's license. This September, Oliver will attend the University of Utrecht to study physics and innovation management.
The world's richest man, his brother and the oldest and youngest people to fly into space safely landed from the first suborbital spaceflight to include a paying passenger on board.
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon.com, and his brother, Mark, became the first blood relatives to launch together aboard a space-bound vehicle — a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket — on Tuesday (July 20). Riding with them was Wally Funk, an 82-year-old pilot whose gender precluded her from being considered for a spaceflight in her youth, and Oliver Daemen, 18, a Dutch student whose seat to space was paid for by his father.
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