Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will be one of the first crewmates aboard his company Blue Origin’s first crewed spaceship missions next month. Also along for the flight will be his brother, Mark Bezos, and the winner of a charity auction (bidding is already above $2M).
Jeff Bezos, who is stepping down as CEO of Amazon on July 5 and is currently worth approximately $187B, expects to spend more time on his other ventures. The planned date of the launch, July 20th, marks the 52nd anniversary of when Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission. Although Blue Origin is not publicly traded, the company hopes to send commercial satellites to orbit.
Jeff Bezos unveils Blue Moon space craft. Dave Mosher, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The six-person capsule will take approximately 10 minutes to reach just beyond the edge of Earth’s atmosphere before descending back to the planet’s surface.
