The highest-profile NS-34 passenger is Justin Sun, a 34-year-old billionaire who founded the blockchain platform Tron. In June 2021, Sun won an auction for a seat aboard the first-ever crewed flight of New Shepard, plunking down $28 million. (He did so anonymously; we didn't learn that Sun posted the winning bid until December 2021 .)

Rocket companies aren't cheap. Fortunately, Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO until 2021, has a ton of Amazon stock and uses it to fund Blue Origin and his other interests. Unlike SpaceX, which continues to go to the private equity markets early and often, Blue Origin remains tightly held with Bezos as primary shareholder and funder.