People are bidding millions for the first ride on Blue Origins suborbital crew capsule

Rich people are jockeying for a seat on Blue Origin’s first crewed New Shepard mission, bidding as high as $2.8 million for a ten-minute experience at the edge of space.

A single seat aboard the New Shepard crew capsule, dubbed the RSS First Step Crew Capsule, went up for auction earlier this month, starting with a sealed bidding round that drew “more than 5,200 bidders from 136 countries,” the company said in a statement yesterday. By Wednesday morning, when the auction’s open-bidding phase began, the highest bid was revealed: $1.4 million. It rose to $2.8 million by the afternoon.

RSS First Step, a gumdrop-shaped pod with seats for six, is getting set to fly its inaugural crew sometime in the next six months, with one seat reserved...

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