Amazon and Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos is planning to launch into space with his brother Mark Bezos on July 20th. And he was taking a mystery passenger along for the ride on the New Shepard. But the person who is paying $28 million for a low orbit space flight just backed out of the maiden voyage of Bezos’ space flight.
The still anonymous millionaire is passing up the space flight due to “scheduling conflicts.” But plans are to fly later on the second crewed flight.
Billionaire Space Race
Space companies Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are both trying to open up space tourism as a new industry. Bezos believed he had cornered the market when he announced on June 6th that Blue Origin was going to fly its first crewed mission.
But Virgin Galactic CEO Richard Branson got there first. He beat Bezos by 9-days with a successful July 11th flight on his spaceplane the VSS Unity.
Bezos Tweeted out before the mission a comparison of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin. And no surprise his company came out on top. He also said that the VSS Unity wasn’t flying high enough to make it into space.