Mr. Bezos will be on board when his rocket company, Blue Origin, launches its first human spaceflight next month, shortly after he steps down as chief executive of Amazon.
Jeff Bezos said on Monday that he would be on board when his rocket company, Blue Origin, conducts its first human spaceflight next month. He said his brother Mark Bezos would join him on the flight. Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Mr. Bezos in 2000, is also auctioning off a passenger seat on the New Shepard, a suborbital spacecraft that is set to take off on July 20. Bidding has reached almost $3 million with nearly 6,000 participants from 143 countries, the company said. The flight is set to carry six passengers on a short trip to the edge of outer space on July 20, the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Blue Origin’s tourist rocket is named after Alan Shepard, the first American to go to space, in 1961. It has undergone 15 test flights, none of which had passengers aboard.