Blue Origin will launch its first tourist flight into space on July 20

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After announcing that it would release more information about its first tourist flight on the suborbital craft New Shepard, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has released more details about the launch and how space enthusiasts (with a lot of cash) can have their chance to participate.

If you were hoping that it would be a simple raffle, then I’m sorry to inform you that it will actually be an auction, so unless you have piles of cash lying around, you’re probably not going to be participating in this historic launch.

There will be three rounds of bidding for the one open seat (six in total) on New Shepard. The first bid, which is ongoing until May 19, is completely sealed. The bidding is taking place on the Blue Origin website.

The second round of bidding unseals everything, and “participants must exceed the highest bid to continue in the auction,” accord to Blue Origin. This takes place starting on May 19. Then, finally, on June 12, the live auction will take place, and you can bet some heavy-hitters are going to come swinging for their shot at a place on New Shepard.

Once everything is settled and a winner selected, the Blue Origin space flight is scheduled for July 20 of this year. This is all very exciting, and as long as everything goes according to plan, a big step for space tourism.

So, what can the winner expect? A Mach 3 launch, weightlessness as New Shepard reaches sub-orbit, and then finally a descent back down to Earth. The entire trip is expected to last around 10 minutes.

As for the money raised for this flight, Blue Origin notes that it will be used to support its foundation Club for the Future, which was created to “inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and to help invent the future of life in space.”

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