Jeff Bezos to fly to space in July

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced on Monday that he and his brother will be flying to space next month.

Aboard the first crewed space flight from his rocket company Blue Origin, the billionaire will join the winner of an auction for a seat on the first space flight from the space firm.

The auction has attracted 5,200 bidders from 136 countries. The current highest bid stood at $2.8m in the ongoing second round of auction, according to Blue Origin's website.

"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," Bezos said in an Instagram post.

The flight will fly the six passengers over 100km above Earth into suborbital space, it will hover for a few minutes and see the curvature of the planet before returning to the surface with parachutes.

The Blue Origin spacecraft, which is set to carry Bezos and others, has undergone 15 test flights, none of which had any passengers onboard.

Bezos's rocket startup is targeting 20 July for its first suborbital sightseeing trip. The startup was planning to charge passengers at least $200,000 for the ride.