Jeff Bezos Picks 18-Year-Old Dutch Student for Blue Origin Rocket Launch
Summary
Mr. Bezos, who just stepped down as chief executive of Amazon, announced last month that he would be one of the passengers when his rocket company, Blue Origin, conducts its first human spaceflight. The flight is scheduled for Tuesday, to coincide with the 52nd anniversary of the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon. It is to follow Richard Branson’s flight to the edge of space this past Sunday in a rocket plane built for the company he founded, Virgin Galactic. When Mr. Bezos made the announcement, he said one of the other seats on New Shepard, a reusable suborbital capsule that goes up more than 62 miles before coming back down, would be auctioned to the highest bidder, with the proceeds going to Mr. Bezos’ space-focused charity, Club for the Future. The winning bid was $28 million, and Blue Origin said it would reveal the bidder at a later date.