This week Jeff Bezos went to space. The ex-Amazon CEO and three lucky passengers partook in the first crewed space flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard. However, the crew of the New Shepard saw a last-minute shuffle before its launch with one mysterious millionaire dropping out.
When the Blue Origin crewed flight was first announced there were four passenger spots available. Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark took two of those and aviator Wally Funk was announced not long after.
The fourth spot was put up for auction with all the proceeds going to Blue Origin’s Club for the Future foundation. A bid of $28 million US dollars ($38 million Australian) took out the win at the auction but the identity of the bidder was kept anonymous.
Then, less than a week before the New Shepard was scheduled to take flight, the mysterious bidder dropped out. This was apparently due to “scheduling conflicts” and the spot was instead filled with high school graduate and son of a rich person, Oliver Daemon.
While the anonymous millionaire will apparently be rescheduled for another Blue Origin flight, dropping out of a once-in-a-lifetime trip to space that you paid a cool $38 million for all seems a little strange.
Who on Earth is rich enough and busy enough to drop out of a space flight? Let’s investigate.
James Cameron
Booking a flight to space is just the sort of thing the director of Aliens and Avatar would do, right?
After spending so long in the outer space worlds of his films, surely James Cameron is curious about what’s actually out there. Plus, he’s a member of NASA’s Advisory Council so he’s most definitely interested in space.
Cameron has an estimated net worth of $700 million and is responsible for the highest-grossing film of all time, so he can definitely afford it. But shooting all those Avatar sequels in New Zealand could’ve caused a “scheduling conflict” with his ticket to space.
Donald Trump
One sure-fire way to get former US President back in the headlines would be for Donald Trump to go to space. This is the President who backed the Space Force program after all, so maybe he wanted to get a better look at where the country’s money was going.
With a net worth of over $2 billion, Trump can definitely afford a sneaky trip to space, but maybe all those conflicting court cases and lawsuits messed up his schedule.
Tom Cruise
It’s a known fact that no actor is more dedicated to insane stunts than Tom Cruise.
The Hollywood actor recently signed on to star in one of the first movies to be filmed in space, so maybe he wanted a sneak preview of what he was in for.
Cruise is worth nearly $600 million and he’ll easily make up that $38 million bid with the next Mission Impossible film. However, that next Mission Impossible film may have caused a scheduling conflict here. Guess he’ll just have to wait for SpaceX.
Elon Musk
I know what you’re thinking, Elon Musk already owns SpaceX so why would he need a trip with Blue Origin?
Maybe Musk wanted an inside look at his competition? He’s already booked a ticket with Virgin Galactic so a flight on the New Shepard would round out the billionaire space trio.
Musk is pretty busy dominating the rise and fall of cryptocurrency right now so maybe that played a part in this cancellation.
Richard Branson
Speaking of Virgin Galactic, maybe Richard Branson wanted a failsafe in case his own historic space flight didn’t go as planned, so he booked a trip with Jeff Bezos to ensure they’d both be the first billionaires in space.
The millionaire’s Blue Origin space flight ticket was cancelled just a few days after Branson’s successful trip to space. Coincidence? I think not.
Of course, it could also be none of the above and is instead just some rich person who missed out on the trip of a lifetime and will now have to turn to the comfort of their millions of dollars to keep them warm at night. Hope they’re doing well.