Amazon's Bezos announces plan to take space trip

Billionaire Jeff Bezos has taken Amazon.com from a humble online bookseller into the stratosphere and now that he's retiring from the CEO role - he's ready for his next adventure....a trip that’s out of this world!

Bezos announced Monday on Instagram that he and his brother will fly on the first crewed space flight from his rocket company Blue Origin -set for takeoff next month.

In his post, Bezos wrote "Ever since I was five years old, I've dreamed of traveling to space. On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend."

Bezos, who will officially end his tenure as Amazon CEO on July 5th, will be joined by the winner of an auction for a seat on Blue Origin's inaugural flight, which will mark a landmark moment in the competition to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel.

The final round of that auction will be held in July. Blue Origin says the first round garnered more than 5,200 bidders from 136 countries.

Bids for the second round of the auction currently top out at $2.8 million, according to the company's website.

The travel plan is to fly more than 60 miles above Earth in a rocket-and-capsule combo. That's high enough to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the planet from afar.

Bezos is not the only billionaire with a passion for outer space and the cash to fund extra-orbital ambitions.

Elon Musk has SpaceX. It plans to send a four-member crew into space later this year...

And Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic aims to fly private customers to space starting next year.

Bezos and Blue Origin are already planning to have more crewed flights before the end of this year, but have been tight-lipped on how much a seat on those flights will cost.

Before that, the world’s richest man is willing to use himself to prove the safety of the flights. Even though the Blue Origin spacecraft that will carry Bezos into space has has 15 test flights, he will be on the company’s first flight with humans on board, which will also give Bezos bragging rights over Musk and Branson.