[imagesource: Reuters / Isaiah J. Downing]

Much like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos has set his sights on things that are out of this world – literally. The Amazon founder plans to fly to space on the 20th of July, the anniversary of the first Apollo 11 moon landing.

“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of travelling to space,” said Bezos. The business tycoon owns a space company called Blue Origin, and will be flying on its first passenger flight to space, along with his brother Mark. Mark Bezos showed his excitement by saying, “What a remarkable opportunity, not only to have this adventure but to do it with my best friend.”

The space tourism system that will be used is called New Shepard, which has already flown successfully to the edge of space six times, albeit without any passengers. In an interesting twist, the Bezos brothers will be allowing a third person to join them on their trip by auctioning off the seat. The prize came in at a hefty price of $28 million, which was the final bid, making it quite a pricey trip to space.

Let’s take a look at the interesting journey to come and what it could mean for Amazon share prices. A must-read if you plan to begin stock trading Amazon share prices as CFDs.

Out of this world

Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin in the year 2000, and he remains the sole owner of the company. He recently sold $2.5 billion worth of his Amazon shares in order to continue funding Blue Origin, having told reporters that he sells $1 billion worth of Amazon shares per year to fund the space company. Even after selling these shares, Bezos remains the richest person in the world, with a total fortune of around $196.2 billion. He still owns about 52.5 million Amazon shares, which equates to a 10.4% stake in the massive company.  

New Shepard is a rocket that forms part of Blue Origin’s space tourism system and is used to take passengers to the edge of space inside a capsule. It can carry up to six passengers per ride beyond the edge of space to the point of zero gravity at over 340,000 feet, where it can linger for just a few minutes before coming back down to Earth. The capsule has large windows that provide out-of-this-world views for passengers and flies without a pilot. How exactly will the journey work? The booster will detach as the rocket launches vertically into the air, and comes back down to land on a concrete pad, while the capsule continues upwards and then lands through the use of multiple parachutes to create a gentle descent. 

The third person, the winner of the auction that will be flying to space with the Bezos brothers, remains unknown. However, the company is said to be revealing the person’s name in the next few weeks. According to Blue Origin, the auction had almost 7,600 people enter, and the earliest bids were as high as $4.8 million. The proceeds of this auction are being donated to the non-profit organization associated with Blue Origin called Club for the Future, which is an education-focused program that assists children who would like a future career in science, technology, engineering or mathematics. There is going to be a fourth person on the flight joining the Bezos brothers and the auction winner. However, this person has also not been named as of yet. 

What about Amazon? 

Amazon share prices have remained strong, with the massive company’s profits continuing on their growth streak. The tech behemoth’s web services arm AWS (Amazon Web Services) has been growing rapidly, and as the company continues to innovate, services like Amazon Prime are also performing well. In the first quarter of this year, the company’s profits more than doubled, going from $4 billion to a massive $8.8 billion. Amazon share prices are currently trading at $3,385.05 at the time of writing, which is a steady increase from the beginning of the year when they closed at a price of $3,189.49 on the 4th of January. Amazon continues to be a strong growth stock, and the company’s constant innovation and long-term planning make it relevant in a competitive market. 

Articles like this are interesting, aren’t they? A fun departure from the usual piece on CFD stock trading or Amazon share prices, you get to see beyond the financial element of some of today’s top companies. And speaking of seeing beyond, it’s important to get social with your CFD broker by following their social broker page. Not only does it give you a better idea of their brand personality, but it also keeps you supplied with a steady stream of CFD stock trading updates, fun facts, and other tidbits from the financial world that could help you make more informed trading decisions. So, head to your social broker page, and click that ‘Follow’ button.

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