The first human commercial trip to space is set to launch on July 20 alongside Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark on board. The winning mystery bidder paid $28 million at a live auction process on Saturday.
More than 7,000 submissions from people around the world have joined the online bidding. Blue Origin said that the identity of the winner won't be revealed for a few weeks prior to its final journey to space.
The 11-minute ride to space from Van Horn, Texas, will carry as many as six passengers with the New Shepard spacecraft. The proceeds to the once in a life time experience will be given to Blue Origin's Club for the Future foundation, which aims to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The fully automated trip for a small number of wealthy tourists may give them a life time experience of a few minutes of weightlessness as it hovers at the top of its flight path.
Blue Origin's crewed flight came to realize in race to space supremacy with Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk's SpaceX has already begun to carry astronauts to the International Space Station, while Virgin Galactic hopes to begin regular commercial suborbital flights on 2022.
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