Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO, Citadel rocket (L) and Blue Origin New Shepard take off (R)
Reuters
Ken Griffinbillionaire founder and CEO of hedge fund Citadel, won an $8 million bid in an auction Monday for a spaceship seat with Jeff Bezos’ Blue origin.
Bezos’ company donated two seats on its New Shepard rocket for a “buy one get one free” auction at the Robin Hood nonprofit’s annual benefit for New York City, with the second seat going to a teacher in NYC.
But Griffin won’t launch into space himself, instead giving up his seat so the two educators can fly.
A spokesperson for Robin Hood told CNBC that the organization will be working with Griffin, Blue Origin, and the New York City Department of Education to select two teachers for the spaceflight, said an announcement about the “process and time” will be out soon.
A Blue Origin spokesperson added that a New Shepard launch date has yet to be set and the company has no plans to auction off the remaining four seats of the flight.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard Rocket Launch from the company’s private facility in West Texas and flew at an altitude of 100 km, or about 340,000 feet, where the crew spent about two minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth.
Notably, Griffin’s bid was $20 million less than the winning bid in Blue Origin’s auction for a seat on New Shepard’s first flight last year — even though that ticket was on the same trip as Bezos himself.
