Blue Origin will now sell New Shepard spaceflight seats in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and selected dollar-pegged stablecoins through a new checkout integration with Shift4 (NYSE: FOUR), the payments company said in a Business Wire announcement. The integration is live and applies to upcoming commercial flights, adding crypto rails alongside traditional methods for one of the world’s best-known suborbital tourism offerings.
Shift4 framed the move as part of a broader push to reduce friction in high-value commerce. “Our mission has always been to revolutionize commerce by simplifying the transaction process,” CEO Taylor Lauber said, adding that the company is “thrilled to now extend that vision beyond Earth” and to offer a “simple, frictionless experience” for Blue Origin customers opting to pay in digital assets.
The company emphasized three merchant benefits that have driven Bitcoin and crypto acceptance in other luxury verticals: tapping a growing base of crypto holders, enabling immediate international transactions, and achieving faster settlement in U.S. dollars at any time of day, seven days a week.
Inside Shift4, the initiative is being led by the firm’s dedicated crypto unit. “Crypto is now a $4 trillion asset class,” said Alex Wilson, Shift4’s Head of Crypto, arguing that digital assets will become “an increasingly popular way for consumers to pay, particularly for high-end purchases,” where both buyer and seller can save on fees and delays relative to more complex cross-border card payments.
Blue Origin’s offering remains unchanged in terms of flight profile and vehicle: New Shepard is a reusable suborbital rocket-and-capsule system that carries passengers past the Kármán Line — roughly 100 kilometers above sea level — before returning to West Texas for capsule touchdown under parachutes. The company notes that “more than 75 humans” have already flown aboard New Shepard and highlights the vehicle’s panoramic crew-capsule windows, among the largest yet flown, for views of Earth during several minutes of microgravity.
The companies did not disclose seat pricing or specific processing fees for Bitcoin and crypto transactions in today’s materials. It is also unclear if Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin converts the Bitcoin and crypto payments into US dollars. What is clear is the operational stance: Shift4 says crypto and stablecoin payments are available “immediately” for Blue Origin bookings, and directs prospective passengers to the program’s information page, which invites would-be travelers to become “one of the first 1000 people to fly to space.”
At press time, Bitcoin traded at $118,491.
