Blue Origin says the first seat on its New Shepard rocket, which is set to take flight on July 20, sold at auction for $28 million.<\/b>
\n(Image: Blue Origin) Blue Origin announced that the first seat on its New Shepard rocket sold for $28 million in an auction that included nearly 7,600 registered bidders from 159 countries. The winning bidder\u2019s name will be revealed \u201cin the weeks following the auction\u2019s conclusion,\u201d the company said. The $28 million will go to the Club for the Future foundation Blue Origin created \u201cto inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and to help invent the future of life in space\u201d via \u201c Postcards to Space, space-focused curriculum, and access to space on Blue Origin\u2019s rockets.\u201d New Shepard\u2019s first human flight is scheduled for July 20. The crew will include the winner of this auction, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, and a \u201cfourth and final crew member\u201d who will be announced when the auction winner\u2019s identity is revealed ahead of the launch. The auction for a seat on that flight ran for several weeks in May and June. The flight itself is the culmination of nearly a decade of research\u2014Blue Origin started work on the rocket in 2012\u2014and many unmanned flights whose findings informed the safety measures for this manned flight. That flight is expected to last about 11 minutes. Blue Origin said in May that New Shepard\u2019s crew will \u201cfloat above the thin limb of the atmosphere and witness life-changing views of Earth through windows that take up more than one-third of the surface area of the capsule.\u201d<\/p>\n