Space Tourism: Jeff Bezos To Send Civilians To Space, Offering A Seat In Online Auction

Amazon Inc founder Jeff Bezos-founded aerospace manufacturing and sub-orbital spaceflight services company, Blue Origin LLC, has announced that it would start selling tickets for suborbital flights to the edge of space. 

The first flight of "New Shepard" rocket is scheduled for July 20, and Blue Origin is auctioning off one single ticket to the highest bidder. Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the second man and first American to go to space, New Shepard is Blue Origin’s reusable suborbital rocket system designed to take astronauts and research payloads into space.

The rocket is designed to carry up to six tourists per flight.

The online auction will be held in three parts -- The first phase, from May 5 to May 19, allows people to bid any amount on the website. After May 19, the bids will be unsealed, and on June 12, Blue Origin will hold a live auction to determine the winner.

On July 20th, #NewShepard will fly its first astronaut crew to space. We are offering one seat on this first flight to the winning bidder of an online auction. Anyone can place an opening bid by going to https://t.co/6DpTdTxo36. #GradatimFerociter pic.twitter.com/jBMFYX7xHg

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) May 5, 2021

The winning bid amount will be donated to Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future, to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and help invent the future of life in space.

It is to be noted that whoever places the winning bid won’t be the first tourist in space as Dennis Tito, a wealthy American businessman, became history's first space tourist. He reportedly paid $20 million for a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to be the first tourist to visit the International Space Station (ISS).

Jeff Bezos Unveils "Blue Moon", A Lunar Spacecraft to Take Humans to the Moon's Surface by 2024

It was in September 2000, when Amazon Inc founder Jeff Bezos founded aerospace manufacturing and sub-orbital spaceflight services company Blue Origin LLC, with aims to develop a variety of technologies, with a focus on rocket-powered vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) vehicles for access to suborbital and orbital space.

In an event on 9th May, Bezos revealed the mock-up of spacecraft named "Blue Moon", which will land on lunar surface by 2024. Blue Origin, the company, has been working on Blue Moon spacecraft for the last three years, since well before US vice president Mike Pence announced the directive for NASA to send humans to the moon in 2024.

"It’s time to go back to the Moon, this time to stay," Bezos said at the end of the event. A new lunar lander is a necessary first step.



Designed for use on the Blue Moon mission by 2024, Blue Moon is essentially a robotic space cargo carrier that runs on Hydrogen and can make cargo deliveries to the Moon. Built to deliver science payloads, moon rovers and even astronauts to the lunar surface, the spacecraft can also deploy small satellites into lunar orbit as a "bonus mission" on the way.

Blue Moon is planned to be capable of delivering 4,500 kg (9,900 lb) to the surface of the Moon and can also be used as cargo vehicle to support NASA's outer space activities, or transport payloads of ice from Shackleton Crater, an impact crater that lies at the south pole of the Moon, to support space activities.



The first projected mission for Blue Moon would be a 2024 lunar south pole landing. It is proposed that a series of landings could be used to deliver the infrastructure for a Moon base.

In his speech in the event, Bezos also make a strong suggestion of mining water from lunar ice deposits, as well as potentially harvesting solar power to the moon.

"I think what he was able to do was to show that the lander has multiple capabilities, that it’s kind of a Swiss army knife,” says Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. It will be able to carry rovers, ascent vehicles to launch off the surface of the moon, and maybe even mining equipment," he said.

Sources - Blue Origin, New Scientist, Space.com