Tom Hanks isn't interested in Jeff Bezos' offer to go to space.
Last month, "Star Trek" actor William Shatner flew to space on a suborbital Blue Origin flight after being invited by Bezos who founded the company. But Shatner wasn't the only household name Bezos offered an astronaut experience to. Actor Tom Hanks revealed Tuesday (Nov. 2) during an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" that he was offered a ride to space and turned it down, saying that he was expected to pay quite a bit of money for the trip.
"Well yeah, provided I pay," Hanks said about the offer to launch on Blue Origin's suborbital vehicle New Shepard. "It costs like $28 million or something like that. And I'm doing good, Jimmy — I'm doing good — but I ain't paying $28 million. You know what, we could simulate the experience of going to space right now."
"I don't need to spend 28 million bucks to do that," he said.
In photos: William Shatner's space launch with Blue Origin
Blue Origin has not revealed the going rate for tickets aboard their suborbital space vehicle. However, for the company's inaugural human spaceflight in July, they held an auction for one of the seats which ended up going for $28 million. The anonymous auction winner ended up having a schedule conflict and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, whose father had won a ticket for him on a future flight in the auction, flew in their place.
Since that first human flight, Blue Origin launched its second human spaceflight, with Shatner on board, on Oct. 13 from the company's launch site near Van Horn, Texas. Shatner, however, flew for free, courtesy of Bezos. Two of the other passengers on the flight purchased their tickets, but the price they each paid is not known. The fourth passenger was Blue Origin's own Audrey Powers, the company's vice president of mission and flight operations.
Following this second successful suborbital flight, Blue Origin aims to launch one more crewed flight in 2021 with several more planned for 2022, the company has said.
Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
