Jeff Bezos is going to fly into space on the first crewed flight of the New Shephard rocket.
Per CNN Business, the 57-year-old Amazon founder announced that he will be part of the crew of the maiden voyage of the spacecraft made by his company Bue Origin, along with his brother Mark Bezos.
The world's richest man is due to depart in the manned spaceflight on July 20th - a mere 15 days after he is due to resign as the CEO of Amazon.
Bezos announced that he will be joining the spaceflight in a post made on his official Instagram account on Monday, June 7.
In a caption addressed to his 2.8 million followers on the platform, the multi-billionaire wrote: "Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space.
"On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend."
CNN reports that the upcoming space mission will see the company's six-seater capsule and 59-foot rocket fly to the very edge of space on an 11-minute-long flight reaching more than 60 miles above the planet Earth's surface.
However, the Amazon founder is also offering the chance for a member of the public to come along for the ride.
In May, Blue Origin announced that a ticket aboard will be given to the winner of a month-long auction for the single spare seat on the vessel.
Writing in another Instagram caption, Bezos stated: "On July 20th, #NewShepard will fly its first astronaut crew to space."
He continued: "We are offering one seat on this first flight to the winning bidder of @BlueOrigin’s online auction. Starting today, anyone can place an opening bid by going to BlueOrigin.com.
"The winning bid amount will be donated to Blue Origin’s foundation, @ClubforFuture, to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and help invent the future of life in space. This seat will change how you see the world."
According to the above publication, the bidding has already reached $2.8 million at the time of writing.
In a 2018 interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, Bezos spoke about his abiding interest in space exploration, stating: "I've been studying it and thinking about it since I was a five-year-old boy.
"But that is not why I'm pursuing this work. I'm pursuing this work because I believe if we don't, we will eventually end up with a civilization of stasis, which I find very demoralizing."
