MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
- Jeff Bezos announced he's going into space with his brother Mark Bezos on July 20.
- The pair will be on the first human flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft.
- The 11-minute flight will have six seats in total, one of which is currently up for auction.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Jeff Bezos announced Monday that he and his brother Mark Bezos will be flying into space next month.
"Ever since I was five years old, I've dreamed of traveling to space," Bezos posted on Instagram on Monday. "On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother."
The brothers will be flying on the first human flight of the New Shepard spacecraft, which is made by Jeff Bezos' space-exploration company Blue Origin.
"I want to go on this flight because it's a thing I wanted to do all my life. It's an adventure, it's a big deal for me," Bezos said in a video posted to Instagram.
"I invited my brother to come on this first flight because we're closest friends," he added.
"I wasn't even expecting him to say that he was going to be on the first flight, and then when he asked me to go along I was just awe-struck," said Mark Bezos in the same video.
Blue Origin is currently auctioning a seat on the same flight. The bidding for one of six seats on Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft has reached $2.8 million with nearly 6,000 participants from 143 countries, the company told Insider in a statement.
Bidding is now live on Blue Origin's website and finishes with a live online auction on June 12.
The 11-minute trip, which plans to blast the crew 62 miles above the Earth's surface, will be the company's first space tourism flight.
A maximum of six people can fit into the capsule, which sits on the top of the rocket booster. Once New Shepard reaches reaches a high altitude, the capsule would break away from the booster, reenter the atmosphere, and float back down to Earth with the help of parachutes.
Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000, and said in a 2018 interview that it's his "most important work." When Bezos announced in February that he will be leaving his role as CEO of Amazon, he said Blue Origin was one of the projects to which he wants to devote more of his attention.
Bezos is set to step down as Amazon CEO on July 5.