The bidding to blast into space with Jeff Bezos on a Blue Origin rocket will start at $4.8 million

• Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is auctioning a seat on its New Shepard space flight scheduled for July 20.
• The live auction is set to take place Saturday, and pre-auction bidding has closed at $4.8 million.
• Bezos recently said he would be on the flight alongside the auction winner.

Bidding for a seat alongside Jeff Bezos aboard New Shepard, the Blue Origin rocket due to blast off July 20, has closed ahead of a live auction this weekend.

The highest bid at the closing of registration on Thursday was $4.8 million, according to Blue Origin's website. The live auction is set to take place Saturday at 12:45 p.m. EDT.

Bezos, who owns Blue Origin, announced Monday that he would be on the first human flight of New Shepard along with his brother, Mark. Pre-auction bidding has been open since May, and before Bezos' announcement the highest bid was $2.8 million.

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The flight is expected to last just 11 minutes, taking the passengers to the edge of space. Bezos and the other passengers can expect to be weightless and able to float about the cabin for roughly three of those minutes, as reported by Insider's Morgan McFall-Johnsen.

New Shepard can carry six people, but so far only Bezos, his brother, and the auction winner have been confirmed as passengers.