Jeff Bezos will travel to space in his own rocket 0:40
(CNN Business) -
How much would you pay for an 11-minute trip to suborbital space with Jeff Bezos?
According to bidders in an auction that concluded Saturday, the trip is worth $ 28 million.
The company kicked off the auction last month - before it was revealed that billionaire founder and Amazon mogul Bezos, along with his brother Mark Bezos, would be aboard the inaugural New Shepard mission.
Blue Origin sales director Ariane Cornell said during a live broadcast of the event that 7,600 people from 159 countries had registered and bid in this Saturday's auction that was hosted by Boston-based RR Auction.
The name of the winning bidder was not disclosed.
The flight is expected to take off from the Blue Origin facility in the west Texas city of Van Horn on July 20.
Jeff Bezos will go into space for 11 minutes.
Know how dangerous it is
Blue Origin, the rocket company Bezos founded in 2000, has spent much of a decade testing New Shepard, the 18-meter-tall rocket and capsule system.
This will be the first time humans have traveled aboard the fully autonomous New Shepard spacecraft after conducting 15 unmanned test flights since 2015.
The ultimate goal of the company is to sell tickets to the general public, offering short but vibrant trips more than 100 kilometers above Earth to enjoy panoramic views, a few minutes of weightlessness and the right to brag.
The 100 kilometer mark is the altitude that is internationally considered the limit of outer space, although the US government considers it to be more than 80 kilometers.
Throughout history, people have been considered astronauts - and have been awarded medals, brooches, or "wings" - for traveling above either marker.
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Proceeds from the auction that concluded on Saturday will be donated to the Blue Origin Club for the Future, which aims to promote science, technology, engineering and math education among young students.
However, it was also a litmus test of how much wealthy consumers might be willing to pay for a short flight into the upper atmosphere.
18 facts about Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' company that travels to space
The $ 28 million price tag, the amount the ticket was sold for, is far more than Blue Origin direct competitor Virgin Galactic has sold its tickets for.
Although Galactic does not yet have paying customers, it has already sold approximately 600 tickets for between $ 200,000 and $ 250,000 each.
It's also a lot less than it likely costs to conduct more immersive spaceflight, like the orbital travels offered by Elon Musk's SpaceX, which will allow people to spend days in orbit around Earth, or even stay aboard the Space Station. International.
The financial details of those trips have not been disclosed, but a government report said a SpaceX seat would cost up to $ 55 million, not including fees for use of the space station.
The flight profile of a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket is very different from that of an orbital SpaceX rocket.
This graph shows the flight profile of Blue Origin's New Shepard.
New Shepard's suborbital travels reach about three times the speed of sound - about 3,701 kilometers per hour - and fly straight up until the rocket uses up most of its fuel. The crew capsule will separate from the rocket at the top of the trajectory and briefly continue upward before the capsule is almost at the top of its flight path, giving passengers a few minutes of weightlessness. It works like an extended version of the weightlessness you experience when you reach the top of a roller coaster, just before gravity brings your car, or — in Bezos's case, your space capsule — screaming at the ground.
The New Shepard capsule then deploys a parachute to slow its descent to less than 20 miles per hour before it hits the ground.
Blue OriginJeff Bezos
