The mystery of who will take the final seat on Blue Origin’s first human spaceflight next week is no longer a mystery: the company revealed today that the winning bidder has been duplicated for $28 million. The seat will go to Oliver Damen, bound for the 18-year-old High School University Outreach University.
He will be the youngest person to travel in space, which means this launch will include both the youngest and the oldest to travel. Blue Origin is planning to fly its founder Jeff Bezos into space in a few days, on its first founding human spaceflight on July 20th. That spacecraft will also carry 82-year-old space pioneer Wally Funk with the Bezas brother on a suburban trip for a few minutes for weightlessness and unparalleled vision before returning for a controlled landing in West Texas.
The final seat was auctioned off through a multistage process that culminated in a live online bidding rally, bringing in the final $28 million paid for the ticket, which is much more than the regular price of the seat at regular times is a New Shepard spacecraft commercial flight, the winner, who is currently anonymous, refused to go for it “because of a time conflict.” The final seat was auctioned off through a multistage process that culminated in a live online bidding rally, bringing in the final $28 million paid for the ticket, which is much more than the regular price of the seat at regular times is a New Shepard spacecraft commercial flight, the winner, who is currently anonymous, refused to go for it “because of a time conflict.”
Funds raised from ticket auctions are actually being donated to charities, but instead of working as Blue Origin’s earnings in a commercial sense for the future of its registered nonprofit club that is dedicated to furthering this STEM education. The new Shepard launch car from Blue Origin is designed for commercial human spaceflight in the suburbs with both tourism and research use. The fully reusable system includes a booster and a high-level crew capsule, and after several test flights starting in 2015, Blue Origin is now the first to have a final set of demonstrations before commercial activities begin with people on board ready to run it.
