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An unidentified winner grabbed the first seat on Jeff Bezos’ spacecraft for an out-of-this-world $28 million.
Adding in the 6% buyers commission added to the highest price bid, the winner will be paying $2.7 million per minute for the 11-minute flight set for July 20, the 52nd anniversary of the moon landing.
The winner will join the Amazon founder and his brother, Mark, on the six-seat craft’s inaugural human flight.
After a month of online bidding, the auction went live Saturday, starting at $4.8 million and edged slowly higher for the first two minutes before it reached $10 million. Then it doubled to $20 million in third minute.
“Realize the more you pay for it, the more you enjoy it!” said auctioneer Steve Little once the bidding reached $26 million.
It took less than six minutes to reach the final $28 million bid.
Nearly 7,600 people from 159 countries registered to take part in the auction for a seat on the spacecraft, named “New Shepard.”
The New Shephard has flown more than a dozen successful flights without crews. Boasting massive windows, the craft is designed to give space tourists unforgettable views of Earth’s curvature, as well as several minutes in zero gravity.
The winning bid amount will be donated to Club for the Future, the foundation created by Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin. Its mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and to help invent the future of life in space.
The name of the auction winner will be released in the coming weeks.
“Then, the fourth and final crew member will be announced, stay tuned,” Blue Origin tweeted after the auction.
Following the auction, the most competitive bidders will be contacted to take a ride on future flights.
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