In a surprise announcement made via his Instagram account, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has revealed that both he and his brother, Mark Bezos, will join the crew and passengers when the Bezos-owned Blue Origin shuttle makes its first commercial flight into space on July 20.
Bezos and his brother will be accompanied by the winner of an online auction that Blue Origin is currently hosting to determine who will join them on the flight. Right now, the winning bid stands at $2.8MM. The Blue Origin launch of its suborbital, reusable New Shepard rocket will now be responsible for another famous first: the first time a billionaire has even been launched into space. Virgin Galactic, by contrast, has flown to space multiple times with test pilots and astronauts, though the company’s founder, Sir Richard Branson, is expected to travel onboard during an upcoming trip. Elon Musk has never flown on a SpaceX launch, though he has suggested in the past that he will fly on one of his company’s vehicles at some point.
The video announcement was notably sentimental, beginning with Bezos waxing poetic about how seeing the Earth from orbit “changes you”, before going on to state that his brother is his “best friend” and that he couldn’t imagine taking the trip with anybody else. – READ MORE
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