Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos will fly to space next month

Amazon’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos said on Monday he and his brother Mark will fly on the first crewed space flight from his rocket company Blue Origin next month.

"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," Bezos, who is one of the richest people in the world, said in anInstagram post. Bezos, who is due to step down as Amazon's chief on July 5, will join the winner of an auction for a seat on the first space flight from Blue Origin. Bezos, fellow billionaires Elon Musk and Richard Branson have been investing billions of dollars on their rocket startups, but Bezos will be the first of the three to actually travel into space on a rocket developed by his own company, reported British wire service.

The Blue Origin spacecraft, which is set to carry Bezos and others, has undergone 15 test flights, none of which had any passengers onboard. Blue Origin closed the first round of the auction last month and said it had received more than 5,200 bidders from 136 countries, without disclosing the highest bid from the round.

Bezos's rocket startup is targeting July 20 for its first suborbital sightseeing trip, a landmark moment in a competition to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel. The startup was planning to charge passengers at least $200,000 for the ride, based on an appraisal of rival plans from Branson's Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (SPCE.N) and other considerations, Reuters reported in 2018, but its thinking may have changed.