Someone is prepared to fork over $480,000 per minute, or $4.8 million, for a 10-minute suborbital spaceflight with Blue Origin.
The bidding for the company’s first crewed spaceflight ended Thursday at 5 p.m. after opening weeks ago with top bids above $2 million.
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After Blue Origin founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos announced he and his brother would also be along for the ride, the dollar amount jumped above $3 million last week.
A live auction is set for June 12 at 1 p.m. to decide the ultimate winner, with all proceeds to be donated to Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s nonprofit foundation meant to inspire children to study science.
The winning bidder will have two days to respond once they are notified to set up their flight or provide the name of the person who will fly in their place.
The New Shepard rocket and capsule are designed to fly six passengers into suborbital space. The winner will join Bezos, his brother, Mark, and other Blue Origin employees.
Blue Origin successfully completed the 15th test flight of its reusable New Shepard rocket in April, with the capsule reaching an altitude of 66 miles.
The company’s launch and landing site is in remote west Texas, 120 miles southeast of El Paso and close to the Mexican border. After the capsule separates, the rocket lands upright to be used again. The capsule, also reusable, descends under parachutes.
New Shepard riders will experience up to 3 G-forces during launch and up to 5.5 Gs during descent.
From liftoff to landing, the experience will last about 10 minutes.
The first crewed launch is scheduled for July 20, the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
A day ahead of the deadline to register for the auction, nearly 6,000 people from 143 countries had placed bids, according to Blue Origin.
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