An unknown person paid $ 28 million for the opportunity to perform a suborbital space flight on the New Shepard spacecraft by the American company Blue Origin.
The starting price for the auction held on Saturday was set at $ 4.8 million. Bidding lasted for several minutes. The auction was broadcast on June 12 on the Blue Origin website.
The flight will take place on July 20, 2021. Its duration will be about 11 minutes. It will also be attended by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark.
More than 7 thousand people from 159 countries took part in the auction. The proceeds will be donated to the non-profit foundation Blue Origin, which aims to interest children in education and work in the scientific and technical field.
The name of the buyer for the unusual lot will be announced in a few weeks.
Blue Origin is one of Jeff Bezos's companies that is going to carry out regular tourist flights into space. The same service is planned for Virgin Galactic and SpaceX.
