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Blue Origin determines New Shepard ticket prices by who you are and what you can pay

From the first commercial launch of Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard spacecraft in 2021, the company has refused to reveal what its standard price is for a ticket.

Now, after five flights and fourteen passengers, one journalist has determined that the company does not appear to have a standard price, but instead determines its prices depending on who you are and what you can pay.

Blue Origin doesn’t advertise price information on its flight reservation page. Passengers say they have paid from zero to nearly $30 million. Industry insiders say Blue Origin’s ticket price is tailored to individual passengers based on a variety of factors.

“It’s not about money; it’s about who you are, your social capital, whether you align with their launch purposes. It’s kind of a package deal,” said Roman Chiporukha, cofounder of SpaceVIP, a platform that helps the wealthy book space trips, including Blue Origin’s. Blue Origin declined to discuss its pricing strategy. [emphasis mine]

How very socialist of Blue Origin, to treat people differently depending on such factors. Under this policy, people have paid from zero to $28 million per ticket.

The ticket policy itself is not illegal — as long as the price differences are not related to race, ethnicity, sex, or religion. It is just unseemly to consider a person’s wealth and status in determining a price.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

9 comments

  • Jay

    Not a very good business model. I bet they factor in your Social Credit rating as well into that price when you answer “Who you are”. Bezos is probably subsidizing this sideshow to get away from the press on the BE-4 delays.

    Speaking of the BE-4, two days ago they installed a flight article engine at MSFC for commissioning tests. I do not know how long their testing will be, but I imagine it will take months for a successful commissioning.

  • Jay: What is your source for the BE-4 story at Marshal?

  • Jay

    Hi Bob,
    Sorry, I should have stated my source, it was on their twitter account: Blue Origin

  • Jay: Thank you. I think I’ll post a short update.

  • Col Beausabre

    “your social capital,” – Yes. let’s be just like those Chinese fascists.

    “Who determines my social capital?

    We do

    What is it based on?

    That’s a secret

    Hint, you shouldn’t have voted the way you did

    Isn’t that secret?

    Hah, hah, ROFLMAO, that’s a good one

    What’s my score?

    That’s a secret, but it’s not enough

    How do I appeal my score?

    There’s no appeal process as there is no appeal, our secret process is foolproof in its determination of your worth as a human being, you piece of human garbage”

  • Ray Van Dune

    Let me see if I can guess what Wm. Shatner paid.

  • Jay

    Ray,
    Jeff wanted Shatner’s Toupée as payment. That is the rumor…

  • Their monkeys; their circus. It is a rather arrogant business model.

  • Gary

    Bob, you need to see what they’d charge you for a ticket! ?

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