"blue-origin"

A single seat aboard the New Shepard crew capsule, dubbed the RSS First Step Crew Capsule, went up for auction earlier this month, starting with a sealed bidding round that drew "more than 5,200 bidders from 136 countries".

Blue Origin had filed a protest with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) against NASA for awarding $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX for landing astronauts on the Moon by 2024.

The US space agency was expected to pick two lunar lander prototypes (including one of Blue Origin's) but funding cut from US Congress led the agency to select SpaceX over Blue Origin.

This mission, launched on Wednesday from Launch Site One in West Texas, marked a verification step prior to flying astronauts, Blue Origin said.

The decision comes after the company lost out on a key Pentagon project to rival firms United Launch Alliance and Elon Musk's SpaceX.