Blue Origin, the privately-owned space technology company launched by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, said Tron founder Justin Sun will be joining the crew of its next mission, which is expected to launch in a matter of weeks.
In a Monday notice, Blue Origin said Sun would join five others as part of the company’s 34th mission using its suborbital rocket system New Shepard, named after the first American in space, Alan Shepard. According to the company, Sun placed a bid for the first seat on the mission in 2021, contributing $28 million.
The 2021 notice suggested that Sun would personally pick the other five crew members, which the company said would be from “the TRON DAO community, comprising of long-term holders of TRX, BTT, JST, SUN, NFT, and WIN.” However, a spokesperson for the Tron founder told Cointelegraph he had not chosen the crew, which included a real estate investor, a businessman, a journalist and a venture capitalist.
Based on the timeline between previously announced mission crews and launch dates, Blue Origin could expect to begin its 34th mission in a matter of weeks. The company drew headlines after an April mission that sent an all-women crew, including singer-songwriter Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King and Bezos’ then-fiancée Lauren Sánchez.
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Tron founder enters Trump’s orbit
The Tron founder has frequently appeared in unconventional stories both within and beyond the crypto space. More recently, he has been seen aligning with US President Donald Trump at a time when Trump’s crypto activities have drawn scrutiny from lawmakers who allege he is offering industry access to the White House.
Sun spent $75 million on tokens through the Trump family’s crypto business World Liberty Financial (WLF), including a $30-million investment before the 2024 US election. Eric Trump, the president’s son and a WLF co-founder, called him a “great friend” in June. According to Forbes, he is worth $8.5 billion at this writing.
Sun also purchased millions of dollars’ worth of the president’s memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), giving him and other tokenholders access to a dinner with Trump in May. In July, he said he would be purchasing another $100 million worth of the memecoin.
Before many of these investments in ventures tied to Trump, Sun had been facing a lawsuit filed in 2023 by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over allegations he participated in “manipulative trading, and unlawful touting of crypto asset securities.”
In February, under the Trump-appointed acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda, the agency and Sun jointly filed a motion for a federal judge to stay the case, which was granted.
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