Jeff Bezos' Space Trip Cost Hundreds of Millions of Dollars a Minute

The world's richest man is setting his sights higher than Earth with his first venture into space. Former Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos has long talked of his plans to go into space, and on July 20, he made good on his promise, taking a brief trip into the atmosphere as part of a test run.

The trip was over quickly, and many are wondering just how much Jeff Bezos spent on his trip to space.

Jeff originally founded Blue Origin, his private space company, back in 2000, and has been using his own personal wealth to fund it as it continues to explore new projects. Despite this launch clearly having been in the works for quite some time, Jeff was unsurprised by the backlash he received from the public for deciding to make a brief venture into space. He responded to criticisms in an interview with CNN, admitting he doesn't think his critics are wrong.

“Well, I say they are largely right,” he told the outlet, acknowledging that yes, there are more pressing issues that should be addressed here on Earth. “We have to do both. We have lots of problems here on Earth and we have to work on those.”

But the billionaire also sees this foray as an important moment to “look to the future ... as a species and as a civilization," and believes his quick joyride is the beginning of work that “will solve problems here on Earth.”

“I have won this lottery,” he reportedly said in 2017. “It’s a gigantic lottery, and it’s called Amazon.com. And I’m using my lottery winnings to push us a little further into space. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do that.”

In total, this trip is costing Jeff $5.5 billion of his fortune — a number that barely makes a dent in his overall worth.

One seat on his flight was also auctioned off for $28 million, according to Fortune, though the original participant backed out due to scheduling conflicts.

Considering the price tag on this trip, it was a joyride that was over quickly. At 9:11 a.m. on July 20, Jeff and his crew launched into space, traveling more than 62 miles into the air, technically passing the boundary that is considered "outer space."

After that, the craft experienced about four minutes of freefall, during which the crew unbuckled their belts and enjoyed a few brief moments of zero gravity.

“You have a very happy crew up here, I want you to know,” Jeff said at the time.

The rocket reentered the atmosphere at 9:21 a.m., meaning the entire experience lasted only 10 minutes and 10 seconds.

Given that Jeff spent around $5.5 billion, the entire experience cost him about $550 million a minute, out of his $205 billion net worth. Clearly, his trip to space was not the most cost-effective getaway.