Chinanews.com, June 13th. According to a report by the US Chinese website, on the 12th local time, a passenger on the first manned flight of the "New Shepard" suborbital vehicle of the American space company Blue Origin, owned by the rich American Jeff Bezos. The seats were sold for 28 million U.S. dollars at auction.

The flight is scheduled to depart from the company's West Texas Proving Ground on July 20.

Data map: On April 29, 2018, local time, near Van Horn, Texas, the United States Blue Origin successfully tested again and recovered the upgraded "New Shepard" suborbital vehicle.

(Video screenshot)

　　According to reports, the entire auction process includes sealed bidding, online bidding on June 10th, and finally on June 12th, qualified bidders will participate in the on-site auction.

In about 10 minutes, the highest bid reached $28 million.

The proceeds will be used for "Future Club", an educational non-profit organization affiliated with Blue Origin.

　　The identity of the winning bidder was not disclosed.

The winning bidder can fly on the New Shepard by himself or appoint another person to participate in the flight.

Ariana Cornell of Blue Origin said that the identity of the winning bidder will be revealed within a few weeks, as well as the fourth and final crew member.

　　The flight on July 20 will be the first manned flight of the New Shepard.

On June 7, Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin, said that he would enter space with his brother as the first passengers.

Data map: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

　　According to previous reports, Blue Origin said that the company's rockets and capsules can send six passengers to suborbits about 100 kilometers above the earth.

At this height, customers can experience weightlessness for a few minutes.

The space capsule has 6 observation windows, and customers can see the earth.

　　Blue Origin’s competitor, SpaceX, Musk’s space exploration technology company, plans to conduct a manned suborbital flight later in 2021. Among the four passengers, there will be a science professor and an aviation data analyst.

　　In addition, Branson, another competitor in this field, is said to be personally participating in a space tour of Virgin Galactic Holdings later in 2021.

The company plans to open space travel services to private customers in early 2022.