Eye-watering amount it costs to go to space amid recent all-female Blue Origin launch
Topics: Katy Perry, Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, Money, Space
Emily Brown
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/PATRICK T. FALLON
Topics: Katy Perry, Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, Money, Space
On April 14, Katy Perry and Gayle King formed part of an all-female crew that blasted off into space for an 11-minute flight on board a rocket from Jeff Bezos' company, Blue Origin.
After the six women returned back to Earth in Texas, Bezos' fiancée Lauren Sánchez, who was on the flight, described the experience as 'profound'.
King said she felt like she could 'do anything' when she returned to Earth, while civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen described her time in the capsule as a 'phenomenal dream'.
If the excited reactions of the Blue Origin flight crew are anything to go by, it's safe to say that going to space is a pretty cool experience. But how much would you have to spend to be able to experience it yourself?
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Well, you don't need to be a rocket scientist, astronaut, or some other space genius to know that it's not the most affordable trip.
It's unclear exactly how much Perry and her crewmates forked out in order to secure a seat on the New Shepherd rocket, but anyone looking to go to space with Blue Origin must have thousands of dollars spare to fork out thousands on the deposit alone.
According to a form on Blue Origin's website relating to seat reservations, hopeful applicants must agree to pay $150,000 for the deposit.
Given that deposits typically cover only a small proportion of the final payment, it wouldn't be surprising to learn that the total cost is in the millions.
The first ticket ever sold for a Blue Origin spaceflight went for a staggering $28 million, which was paid by a bidder in an auction between 7,600 people from 159 countries.
And if that figure wasn't enough to put you off, Pocketmags has further estimated that the average cost of a seat to space varies between $64 million to $88 million. That figure might be feasible to someone like Bezos, whose net worth stands at $198 billion, according to Forbes, but it's definitely more than most of us will see in our lifetimes.
However, with space travel having already come on in leaps and bounds in just a few decades, it's entirely possible that cheaper trips to space will become available in the future.
When asked if she expects flights to space to eventually become as attainable as commercial flights on Earth, Bezos' fiancé, Sánchez, said: "I know Jeff [Bezos] and I know Blue Origin. Blue Origin is building the road to space."