Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO, Citadel (L) and Blue Origin New Shepard rocket lifts off (R)
Reuters
Ken Griffin, billionaire founder and CEO of hedge fund Citadel, positioned the successful $8 million bid in an public sale Monday for a seat on a spaceflight with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
Bezos’ firm donated two seats on its New Shepard rocket for a “purchase one, give one” public sale on the nonprofit Robin Hood’s annual profit for New York Metropolis, with the second seat going to a metropolis trainer.
However Griffin won’t launch to area himself, as a substitute giving again his seat in order that two educators can fly.
A Robin Hood spokesperson instructed CNBC that the group will associate with Griffin, Blue Origin and New York Metropolis’s Division of Training to pick out the 2 lecturers for the spaceflight, saying an announcement concerning the “course of and timeline” is coming quickly.
A Blue Origin spokesperson added the timing for the New Shepard launch will not be set and that the corporate will not be planning to public sale off the flight’s remaining 4 seats.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket launches from the corporate’s personal facility in West Texas and flies past 100 kilometers altitude, or about 340,000 toes, the place the crew experiences about two minutes of weightlessness earlier than returning to Earth.
Notably, Griffin’s bid is $20 million less than the winning bid of an auction that Blue Origin held for a seat on its inaugural New Shepard flight final yr — though that ticket got here with a trip together with Bezos himself.
