How Much Does Blue Origin Space Flight Cost?

Space tourism is entering an exciting new era, with companies like Blue Origin offering suborbital flights to the edge of space for civilian passengers. But how much does the ultimate adventure trip actually cost? This article explores Blue Origin ticket pricing, flight details, and the future of private space travel.

Founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard spacecraft provides brief yet unforgettable rides to space for those seeking thrills, scientific research, and killer views of Earth. As demand for space tourism surges, many wonder exactly how much securing one of the limited seats costs for this exclusive experience. Read on for a full breakdown of ticket prices, flight profiles, passenger perks, and more.

How Much Does Blue Origin Space Flight Cost?

The current estimated cost for a seat aboard a Blue Origin space flight is between $200,000 to $500,000+ per person, with the first ticket selling at auction in 2021 for $28 million. However, exact pricing is not disclosed publicly and may vary based on demand, flight number, and other undisclosed factors.

Given its historic nature and exclusivity, spaceflight with Blue Origin commands premium pricing well beyond an average vacation. Here’s a look at current ticket prices:

• Seat Price: Estimated around $200,000 to $500,000+ per seat
• First Auction Price: The first sold ticket went for $28 million at public auction

Exact pricing remains unpublicized and is likely based on flight number, demand, and other factors. But sources attest seats cost up to $500,000 or more, on par with Virgin Galactic’s $450,000 ticket price.

As an elite experience with limited capacity, Blue Origin commands prices reflecting the uniqueness of private spaceflight. Supply is extremely constrained – with 6 seats per capsule and only a few flights per year, availability is in the dozens annually at most.

But demand for space tourism is surging among high-net-worth individuals, so Blue Origin maintains strong control over pricing and access for now. As operations scale up, per seat costs may gradually decline over time.

According to Wikipedia, the first commercial seat was auctioned for $28 million in 2021, with the proceeds donated to Blue Origin’s Club for the Future foundation. More typical prices for seats have been reported around $1.25 million per passenger, based on a reported $2.5 million payment for two seats purchased by the cryptocurrency organization MoonDAO.

A refundable deposit of $150,000 is required to reserve a seat, as noted on Blue Origin’s official reservation page and reported by BBC. This deposit initiates the order process but does not guarantee a seat.

Industry estimates suggest that the total cost to launch the New Shepard rocket is between $1 million and $3 million per flight. Given that each flight carries six passengers, the per-seat cost to make the venture financially viable would be roughly in the million-dollar range, as explained by experts cited in Reuters. Blue Origin aims to reduce costs through rocket reusability, but space tourism remains a premium experience accessible to a limited audience.

While Blue Origin has not publicly disclosed an official ticket price, the available data indicates that a seat on a New Shepard flight currently costs in the low millions of dollars, with deposits starting at $150,000. The company’s pricing model is individualized and may vary depending on the passenger and mission specifics.

Blue Origin Space Tourism

Blue Origin is a private aerospace company that offers the world’s first crewed suborbital space tourism experience via reusable rocket technology. Founded by billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos in 2000, Blue Origin aims to make access to space more reliable, lower cost, and open to private citizens.

Their New Shepard reusable rocket and capsule system provides brief suborbital spaceflights designed for space tourism, science research, and technology demonstrations. Named after pioneering astronaut Alan Shepard, the spacecraft ascends past the Kármán line defining space at 62 miles up then descends via parachute back to the Texas desert.

With spectacular views of Earth and several minutes of weightlessness, New Shepard provides travelers a taste of the astronaut experience. As demand for space tourism climbs, many wonder exactly how much securing one of these coveted seats costs.

Included Perks and Extras

A ticket may cost up to half a million dollars, but what exactly does that monumental ticket price include? Here’s a breakdown of the key benefits and perks:

Astronaut Training

In advance of launch, passengers undergo a 2-day pre-flight training program at Blue Origin’s facilities in West Texas. Training covers safety briefings, flight suit fittings, astronaut maneuvers, and emergency protocols.

Custom Flight Suit and Commemoratives

Each passenger receives a personalized Blue Origin flight suit, professional photos and videos of the experience, and a celebratory memorabilia package.

Luxury Spaceport Hospitality

On launch day itself, guests enjoy premium hospitality at Blue Origin’s state-of-the-art Launch Site One complex. The spaceport offers luxury lounges, fine dining, briefing rooms, and VIP treatment.

11-Minute Spaceflight Experience

Of course, the crown jewel is an unforgettable 11-minute spaceflight itself. The experience covers launch, ascending to 350,000 feet beyond the Karman line, floating weightless in zero-g, and landing – all aboard a reusable rocket.

For many prospective space tourists, realizing the dream of space travel is priceless. Blue Origin provides an end-to-end luxury experience befitting the historic nature of this elite adventure.

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Your 11 Minutes in Space

While a quick up-and-down journey, a suborbital spaceflight with Blue Origin packs exhilarating moments from takeoff to touchdown. Here’s what passengers experience:

Vertical Rocket Liftoff

After boarding the capsule atop the 60-foot New Shepard booster, passengers strap into reclining seats with harness restraints for safety and comfort in zero-g. At launch, New Shepard’s 110,000 pound thrust BE-3 liquid hydrogen engine ignites, propelling the capsule skywards at over 2,000 mph.

Ascending to Apogee

In just 2 and a half minutes, New Shepard crosses the 50-mile altitude mark and soars past the 62-mile Karman line, officially entering outer space. It continues climbing to an apogee of 66 miles for spectacular views and weightlessness.

Floating Freely in Zero Gravity

Around the 3-minute mark, passengers experience the highlight of the journey – up to 5 minutes of weightlessness in space. Seat harnesses are unbuckled allowing guests to float, flip, and gaze out the capsule’s massive windows at Earth below and the blackness of space.

Plummeting Back to Earth

After the exhilarating weightless portion, the spacecraft begins descending back to Earth. Parachutes deploy around 20,000 feet slowing the capsule to a gentle 15 mph touchdown in the desert landing zone. A soft rocket landing soon follows to recover the reusable New Shepard booster.

The entire experience lasts roughly 11 minutes from launch to landing, but provides space tourists an unforgettable glimpse of life above our planet, if only for a few treasured moments.

Auction Winner Price

To date, Blue Origin has only conducted one public ticket sale in July 2021 – an auction for the very first seat on New Shepard. After fierce bidding, it sold for an astronomical $28 million to billionaire CEO Richard Branson. While a record sum, this reflects the intense demand for the historic trip.

The auction generated massive publicity and goodwill for Blue Origin. Branson ended up launching first on Virgin Galactic’s competing space plane soon after, shifting the PR win.

Since then, Blue Origin has not disclosed further ticket pricing or sales data. The company is rumored to use dynamic variable pricing based on flight date, demand, and other factors. Some speculate future seats may go for $100,000 to $300,000 at steady state.

But make no mistake – suborbital space tourism is an ultra-exclusive club likely to command premium pricing for the foreseeable future. As rocket technology improves, costs may eventually fall, following the evolution of commercial air travel over decades.

Other Commercial Space Providers

Blue Origin competes in a blossoming private spaceflight industry alongside Virgin Galactic and SpaceX. Here’s how New Shepard compares:

• Virgin Galactic – Also offers suborbital space tourism flights aboard its SpaceShipTwo spaceplane. Tickets cost around $450,000 for a similar height and weightless time as Blue Origin.
• SpaceX – Focuses on orbital and beyond flights for travelers instead of suborbital hops. Plans to offer orbital tourism trips costing tens of millions per seat in the future.

While pricier than Virgin, Blue Origin offers a more classic astronaut capsule experience with longer duration than its rival. Both represent a huge premium over orbital providers like SpaceX, but offer an easier space taste test versus full orbit.

Historical Ticket Price Evolution

In the short term, prices for Blue Origin suborbital flights should remain high given constrained supply and strong demand. But looking long-term, spaceflight may gradually open to more income levels.

Consider the evolution of commercial air travel over decades – initially only open to the ultra-wealthy in the 1920s, but costs gradually dropped thanks to expanding routes, higher volume, larger planes, and more affordable infrastructure and technology.

While still out of reach for most, space tourism costs could follow a similar trajectory IF reusable rocket technology matures, flight frequency increases, and more spaceports are built to expand capacity. But this evolution is likely to take many years if not generations.

Per seat prices below $100,000 seem unlikely in the near future. Blue Origin and peers must balance optimizing revenue today with cultivating a broader future space tourism market. It will be interesting to watch prices change over time as technological improvements multiply access to space.

Year	Price Per Seat	Notes
2021	$28 million*	Inaugural auction ticket
2022	~$200k – $500k	Rumored current pricing
2030	~$100k – $300k	Potential steady state range
2040+	<$100k?	Possible with mature reusable tech

When Can the Public Book Tickets?

Given its private status, Blue Origin has significant leeway in controlling access to New Shepard flights. To date, they’ve only flown company personnel, celebrity guests, and sold the single charity auction seat.

Blue Origin is currently accepting online inquiries from those interested in future spaceflights, but has not yet announced a timeline for public ticket sales. The company is still working through a multi-year manifest of pre-booked passengers, mostly high net worth VIPs.

As operations scale, Blue Origin will need to expand access while carefully managing exclusivity. Virgin Galactic’s approach of tiered pricing may serve as one model. But for now, space tourism remains extremely restricted for all but the wealthiest adventurers.

Reusable Rocket Design

An essential factor enabling affordable space tourism is Blue Origin’s reusable rocket technology. The New Shepard system is designed to fly over and over without the need for costly rebuilding between launches. Here’s an overview:

Reusable Rocket Booster

The New Shepard booster provides 110,000 pounds of thrust to propel the crew capsule to space at over 3 times the speed of sound. Its BE-3 liquid hydrogen engine reignites to land upright back at the launchpad after separating from the capsule around 2 minutes into flight.

Astronaut Capsule

The crew capsule fits 6 passengers in reclining seats with massive windows for viewing Earth. Safety features include launch escape motors, redundant systems, and 15 parachutes for soft landings. Its durable design enables 100+ reuses.

Combined with streamlined launch operations, this reusable system provides the robustness and cost efficiency key to making space tourism financially viable. Bringing launch costs down from hundreds of millions to tens of millions per flight opens space access to new markets.

Availability and Waitlists

Given limited flight capacity, when might public sales open up for a Blue Origin space trip? Here’s the latest:

• Blue Origin’s website accepts signups to receive email updates on ticket availability. This is the best option for future booking news.
• No firm timeline offered yet for public sales.
• Waitlist priorities are undefined. Factors may include net worth, loyalty, influence, and willingness to pay.
• Ticket volumes are severely limited – likely only a few dozen offered per year initially.

For the near future, Blue Origin spaceflights will remain extremely limited. But over time, technology improvements and expanded facilities could increase passengers flown to hundreds or thousands per year. Though still exclusive, commercial space travel may eventually become feasible for more of the public.

Final Words

From a passenger perspective, the exhilaration and exclusivity of visiting space offers a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But as capacity increases, providers must balance affordability, lower environmental impacts, and enhancing the consumer experience to have broad appeal.

For now, these initial short hops provide a riveting glimpse of the future. But the industry must evolve to offer more accessible and meaningful travel experiences advancing science and understanding.

In partnership with other important players in commercial space, Blue Origin aims to spearhead an exciting new era in believably making civilian spaceflight dreams a reality for more people worldwide.

Answers to Common Questions

How much did Katy Perry pay for the space trip?

Pop star Katy Perry has not yet flown to space with Blue Origin or disclosed her ticket price. Some rumors suggest she secured a future seat for $200,000 – $500,000+ given her star status and publicity value. But this remains unconfirmed by Blue Origin.

How much does it cost to go to space?

Currently, a suborbital spaceflight to the edge of space costs around $200,000 to $500,000+ with Blue Origin. Competitor Virgin Galactic charges $450,000 per seat. orbital trips to the ISS cost tens of millions. As technology progresses, prices are expected to drop gradually over time.

How high does Blue Origin fly?

Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft reaches a maximum altitude of around 350,000 feet or 66 miles up – safely passing the Karman line boundary of space at 327,000 feet. The entire suborbital flight from liftoff to landing lasts around 11 minutes.