This undated file illustration provided by Blue Origin shows the capsule that the company aims to use to take tourists into space. /AP
周六，一位神秘买家以2800万美元的高价拍得“新谢泼德号”载人飞船的坐席。
“新谢泼德号”由蓝色起源公司制造，这家致力于将乘客带往太空边缘的短途飞行（这一领域被称为亚轨道旅行）的公司是贝索斯在2000年9月8日成立的，“新谢泼德号”的旅程将是蓝色起源的首次载人飞行。
将与这位买家一起乘坐“新谢泼德号”飞向太空的，还有亚马逊的创始人、亿万富翁杰夫·贝索斯和他的弟弟马克·贝索斯。
本周早些时候，贝索斯表示，将于7月20日和弟弟马克·贝索斯一起，乘坐蓝色起源公司研制并发射的首艘载人飞船“新谢泼德号”前往太空边缘，进行一次“最伟大的冒险”。
A mystery bidder paid $28 million at auction on Saturday for a seat alongside Jeff Bezos on board the first crewed spaceflight of the billionaire's company Blue Origin next month.
Blue Origin works on short flights that take passengers to the edge of space, a sector known as suborbital travel.
Bezos, the Amazon founder revealed this week that both he and his brother Mark would take seats on board the company's New Shepard launch vehicle on July 20, to fly to the edge of space and back.
The Bezos brothers will be joined by the winner of Saturday's charity auction, whose identity remains unknown.
"The name of the auction winner will be released in the weeks following the auction's conclusion," tweeted Blue Origin following the sale.
"Then, the fourth and final crew member will be announced – stay tuned."
蓝色起源公司周六表示，购票者的身份要几周后才会公布。在当天的现场竞拍之前，网上竞拍活动持续了数周，来自159个国家的7000多人提交了在线竞标。6月10日公开线上竞标阶段结束时的最高出价已达480万美元，周六的最终直播拍卖仅进行了一分多钟，票价就升至1000万美元；拍卖开始不到7分钟，这张“船票”就被一位买家以2800万美元购得。
拍卖收益除去6%的拍卖佣金之后，将捐给蓝源公司的慈善基金会。
“新谢泼德号”荷载仅6人，对外开放4个席位，目前只剩一席空置。
Saturday's successful bidder beat out some 20 rivals in an auction launched on May 19 and wrapped up with a 10-minute livecast frenzy.
Bidding had reached $4.8 million by Thursday but shot up spectacularly in the final live auction, rising by million-dollar increments.
The proceeds – aside from a six percent auctioneer's commission – will go to Blue Origin's foundation, Club for the Future, which aims to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos addresses the media about the New Shepard rocket booster and Crew Capsule mockup at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., April 5, 2017. / Reuters
今年7月5日，贝索斯将正式卸任亚马逊CEO。
他曾表示自己要将更多时间花在包括蓝色起源在内的其他项目上，并称飞入太空是他毕生的梦想。
从自美国得克萨斯州西部的沙漠起飞开始，新谢泼德的旅程将持续10分钟左右，四名乘客将在卡门线（太空与地球大气层的分界线）上方停留4分钟，在此期间舱内的4名乘客将能体验零重力飞行，还可以通过每个座位旁的大舷窗从太空观赏地球弧线。
此前，“新谢泼德号”已成功进行过十余次试飞。
Bezos, who announced earlier this year he is stepping down as Amazon's chief executive to spend more time on other projects, including Blue Origin, has said it was a lifelong dream to fly into space.
Blue Origin's New Shepard has successfully carried out more than a dozen uncrewed test runs from its facility in Texas' Guadalupe Mountains.
Taking off from a desert in western Texas, the New Shepard trip will last 10 minutes, four of which passengers will spend above the Karman line that marks the recognized boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space.
After lift-off, the capsule separates from its booster, then spends four minutes at an altitude exceeding 60 miles (100 kilometers), experience weightlessness and can observe the curvature of Earth.
The booster lands autonomously on a pad two miles from the launch site, and the capsule floats back to the surface with three large parachutes that slow it down to about a mile per hour when it lands.
The automated capsules with no pilot have six seats with horizontal backrests placed next to large portholes in a futuristic cabin with swish lighting. Multiple cameras help immortalize the few minutes the space tourists experience weightlessness.
The reusable suborbital rocket system was named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space 60 years ago.
富豪们的飞天梦推动太空旅行发展
从竞争激烈的拍卖也能看出，贝索斯绝对不是唯一一个“想上天”的富豪。
就在蓝色起源紧锣密鼓地准备自己的第一次载人飞行的同时，埃隆·马斯克的SpaceX公司已经成功为美国国家航空航天局向国际空间站运送过宇航员。
这家创立于2002年的公司，立志将一艘名为“火星绿洲”（Mars Oasis）的飞船送上火星。
Blue Origin's maiden crewed flight comes in a context of fierce competition in the field of private space exploration – with Elon Musk's SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, all jostling for pole position.
Bezos has a very public rivalry with Musk, whose SpaceX is planning orbital flights that would cost millions of dollars and send people much further into space.
SpaceX has already begun to carry astronauts to the International Space Station and is a competitor for government space contracts.
Four astronauts of NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission are inside the SpaceX capsule after landing in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, U.S., May 2, 2021. /CFP
另一边，由理查德·布兰森建立的维珍银河公司也致力于短暂离开地表的亚轨道飞行业务。
维珍银河希望在2022年初开始定期的商业亚轨道飞行，最终计划每年进行400次飞行。截至去年7月，维珍银河表示他们已售出650多张太空旅票，贾斯汀·比伯、莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥、已故英国物理学家斯蒂芬·霍金等社会名流皆在购票名单内。
Virgin Galactic, meanwhile, hopes to begin regular commercial suborbital flights in early 2022, with eventual plans for 400 trips a year.
Some 600 people have booked flights, costing $200,000 to $250,000 – and there has been talk of Branson himself taking part in a test flight this summer, although no date has been set.