The online auction for Blue Origin's first passenger flight next month surpassed $3 million on Monday after news broke that Jeff Bezos and his brother, Mark, would be among the guests on the flight.
The highest bid to snag one of the six seats on New Shepard's first crewed suborbital flight was $3.2 million as of 3 p.m. ET.
However, even before news broke that the Bezos brothers would be tagging along on the historic trip – slated for July 20 – the ongoing auction had already amassed nearly 6,000 participants from 143 countries, according to Blue Origin.
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The aerospace company kicked off the three-phase online auction in early May, offering one seat on the first flight of its New Shepard spacecraft which has already had over a dozen successful flights to and from space, according to Blue Origin.
FIRST PHASE OF BLUE ORIGIN ROCKET AUCTION CLOSES; HIGHEST BID AT $2.6M
During the sealed portion of the online auction, which began on May 5, bidders could submit "any amount" for the chance to ride into space. The second, unsealed phase of the online bidding runs through June 10. The bidding will then conclude during a live online auction on June 12.
The spacecraft — named after the first American in space, Alan Shepard — has already flown 15 successful consecutive missions to space above the Kármán Line which is an imaginary boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space, according to Blue Origin.
"Fewer than 600 astronauts have been to space above the Kármán Line to see the borderless Earth and the thin limb of our atmosphere. They all say this experience changes them," the company said in its auction announcement.
JEFF BEZOS WILL TRAVEL TO SPACE ON BLUE ORIGIN ROCKET
Now, following "a meticulous and incremental flight program to test its multiple redundant safety systems" the aerospace company is ready for "astronauts to climb onboard."
"This seat will change how you see the world," the company said.
Proceeds from the auction will be donated to Blue Origin’s foundation Club for the Future in an effort to "inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and help invent the future of life in space."
Fox News' Julia Musto contributed to this report.
