Want a ride into space with Jeff Bezos? Me neither.

Jeff Bezos was just a little bit of a kid - 8 years old - when Harry Nilsson's song "Spaceman" was released. So you can't blame him if he got the lyrics a bit mixed up. If you don't listen too carefully, you might think that Nilsson's singing "I want to be a spaceman, " not "I wanted to be a spaceman." And if you're only a kiddo, this rueful bit may well have gone in one little kiddo ear and out the other:

I wanted to be a spaceman
I wanted to be it so bad
But now that I am a spaceman
I'd rather be back on the pad

In any event, Mr. Amazon will be back on the pad soon enough. His upcoming space shot, courtesy of Bezos's space flight outfit Blue Origin, will only be in the heavens (or thereabout) for about 10 minutes after it blasts off on July 20th.

Anyway, if Jeff Bezos wants to play astronaut, let him have at it. I just wished he a) treated his employees better; and b) paid something more than zero in personal and/or corporate taxes. Other than that, even though I like to think of some of it as my money, it really is Jeff Bezos's money.

But I guess it's lonely at the top, because it looks like there's a spare spot available on the Good Ship Bezos - one that's not being filled by a friend or family member. Bezos will be accompanied by his brother and someone as-yet-to-be-named. That still leaves one seat free.  So Blue Origin asked RR Auction (a Boston auction house, by the way) to take it off of their hands.

RR Auction has sold plenty of interesting items over the years.  And interesting items can go for plenty. They once got half-a-million for a couple of guns that had belonged to a couple of pretty well-known Depression era gunsels named Bonnie and Clyde. Switching gears, they also sold a handwritten letter that Albert Einstein had sent to a fellow physicist for $1.2 million.

But space-related memorabilia has become something of a niche for the auction house, and they've sold everything from a dime that ill-fated spaceman Gus Grissom had smuggled into space, to a watch worn by Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott that went for $1.6 million, even though no one other than the buffest of space buffs has ever heard of David Scott. And up until last Saturday, that watch was the most pricey item RR Auction had ever gaveled sold.

That's when the ticket to ride with Jeff Bezos received its final bid. And that was a bid for the astonishing - one might even say astronomical - amount of $28M. (The winning bidder is at present anonymous.)

You may be pleased to know that that money won't be finding its way into the deep and cash-lined pockets of Jeff Bezos. (No Gus Grissom dimes squirreled away in those pockets!) Instead,

...the bulk of the proceeds will go to Club for the Future, a foundation designed to encourage young people to get into science, technology, engineering, and math. (Source: Boston Globe)

I hope the winning bidder gets the tax deduction. But, hey, if he's got $28M to spend on a space flight, he probably doesn't pay any taxes anyway. As for RR Auction, they'll be pocketing $1.68M - a 6 percent cut. Not bad, considering it's more than the price of any item they've ever auctioned off in the past. Nice payday, fellows!

Here are the deets on the flight:

The spaceflight on July 20 will be the first time Blue Origin sends humans into space, though it has had several uncrewed flights of its rockets over the past few years. The company plans to offer regular tourist flights, which are suborbital, taking passengers up to the Kármán Line, which is generally accepted as the boundary of space, about 62 miles above the Earth’s surface. 

Tourists will spend about 10 minutes weightless during their flights, and the New Shepard spacecraft that takes them can seat six, each of which features a window view of space and Earth. Blue Origin has not yet said when tourist flights will begin or what pricing for the tickets will be, though that price is generally expected to be around $500,000. The winning $28 million bid, which was really for the chance to be on the first flight, is only a little less than the $35 million billionaire Guy Laliberté paid in 2009 to go to the space station. (Source: Forbes)

Blue Origin won't be the only game in town. There are also Elon Musk's Space X and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. In terms of who I'd rather lift off with, I'd have to go with Richard Branson. After all, having passed him walking down Beacon Street a few years ago - we exchanged a nod and a smile - I practically know the guy. But having Bezos as a captive audience for 10 minutes - 10 minutes when I could harangue him just a bit about what to do with his money - has some appeal. As I've said - and I would never, ever, even in a kabillion light years contradict myself in a blog post - it's his money. Still, I might provide a modest harangue about paying his employees better, and paying taxes.

Alas, even if I had half a million to spend on taking a shot - let alone $28 million - analysts expect demand to exceed supply.

Oh, what a world we live in - and blast off from.