Blue Origin shares multimillion-dollar spaceship ticket proceeds with 19 charities

There are solely so many postcards you possibly can ship to area and again, even when you’ve got $28 million to work with.

That’s one purpose why the Club for the Future, the academic nonprofit basis created by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin area enterprise, is giving 19 space-related charities the lion’s share of the proceeds from the $28 million fare {that a} thriller public sale winner is paying to go on a suborbital area journey.

The winner, who’s attributable to be revealed any day now, will journey alongside with Bezos himself, his brother Mark and “Mercury 13” aviation pioneer Wally Funk when Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket ship lifts off from a West Texas spaceport on July 20. Going down on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon touchdown, this flight will mark the primary crewed mission for a suborbital launch car that’s been examined 15 occasions in uncrewed mode.

When Blue Origin launched the auction in May, the corporate promised that the proceeds would go to the Membership for the Future, whose signature instructional program includes taking in postcards from youngsters, flying them on New Shepard, after which returning them to the senders as mementos. The inspiration additionally creates space-related classroom activities and does outreach at public occasions.

5 weeks later, the successful bid of $28 million raised eyebrows — even at Blue Origin. “With $28 million, we’re going to encourage a whole lot of youngsters,” Ariane Cornell, the corporate’s director of astronaut technique and gross sales, stated on the time.

Now the Membership for the Future goes to have some assist spending the cash, and spreading the inspiration.

“This donation is enabling Membership for the Future to quickly increase its attain by partnering with 19 organizations to develop and encourage the following technology of area professionals,” Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith said today in a news release. “Our technology will construct the highway to area, and these efforts will guarantee the following technology is able to go even additional.”

The Membership for the Future is providing a $1 million grant to every of those 19 teams:

In the meantime, the Membership for the Future will proceed its work on classroom curriculum — and, after all, on the “Postcards to Space” program. More than 25,000 postcards flew on the most recent uncrewed New Shepard test flight in April. It’s a protected wager that Blue Origin will discover room for just a few extra on subsequent week’s milestone flight.