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It took $28 million for winning bid on Kent-based Blue Origin’s space flight

Published 10:37 am Monday, June 14, 2021

By Steve Hunter

The winning bid hit $28 million for a seat on New Shepard’s first human flight into space by Kent-based Blue Origin. COURTESY PHOTO, Blue Origin

The winning bid hit $28 million for a seat on New Shepard’s first human flight into space by Kent-based Blue Origin. COURTESY PHOTO, Blue Origin

It took a whopping $28 million bid for someone to get the first seat on Kent-based Blue Origin’s first human flight into space.

Blue Origin concluded the online auction on June 12. Nearly 7,600 people registered to bid from 159 countries for the flight on New Shepard, according to a Blue Origin email.

The winning bidder will fly to space with Blue Origin founder, Jeff Bezos, and his brother, Mark Bezos.

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.

The name of the auction winner will be released in the coming weeks, according to Blue Origin. The fourth and final crew member also will be announced at that time. The flight will be from Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas. The flight will last about 11 minutes.

Blue Origin’s goals are to get astronauts back on the Moon and people living and working in space. The company opened in Kent in 2000 and expanded its headquarters in 2020 to a 236,000-square-foot blue-colored facility along 76th Avenue South between South 212th and South 228th streets.

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