Next month, Jeff Bezos will launch his own rocket into space, joining the first crew to fly in a Blue Origin capsule. The Amazon founder revealed on Monday that he and his fireman brother Mark will launch on July 20 from Texas. The top bidder in a charity auction will also make the 10-minute up-and-down hop.

Bezos is stepping down as CEO of Amazon on July 5 - only 15 days before launch - to devote more focus to his space firm and his newspaper, The Washington Post. His share in Amazon is now valued at $164 billion. “I would like to take this flight because it's something I've always wanted to do. It's a thrilling journey and means a lot to me.”

Bezos stated that he invited his younger brother, his best buddy, to join him on the tour to make it even more "meaningful." The trip will mark the formal start of Blue Origin's space tourism enterprise. The business has yet to begin selling public tickets or even establish ticket pricing for the brief rides, which deliver around three minutes of weightlessness. Six persons will accommodate the capsule, each with a huge window. The business has not revealed who would fill the other three seats on the inaugural passenger trip.

Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Galactic, also intends to fly on his rocket sometime this year, following one more test flight over New Mexico. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, has failed to commit to a spaceflight despite transporting ten people to the International Space Station and selling private trips.

In April, Blue Origin accomplished its 15th test flight of their reusable New Shepard rocket, with the capsule attaining a height of 66 miles (106 kilometers). Before takeoff, a dummy crew buckled into the capsule for practice, then leaped out, preparing the way for the future passenger voyage.

The launch and landing facility for the corporation is located in isolated west Texas, 120 miles southeast of El Paso and near the Mexican border. The rocket lands upright once the capsule separates, ready to be utilized again. The capsule, reusable, falls using parachutes.

The corporation picked the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's Apollo 11 landing on the moon as the day for its maiden crew launch. It exploited a space anniversary in May to launch an online auction for a spot on the voyage - the 60th anniversary of Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard's first US spaceflight, for whom the rocket is named.

The highest offer is at $2.8 million. The auction will finish on Saturday, only with the winning bid amount donated to Blue Origin's education organization, Club for the Future. The sale drew over 6,000 bidders from 143 nations.

Meanwhile, the dollar stabilized on Monday after falling on Friday as a result of weaker-than-expected US job data, and currency markets, in general, lacked impetus as investors awaited critical inflation data later this week.

Friday's jobs report was regarded as a relief for markets, as it showed that a pick-up in job growth was not significant enough to increase expectations for the US Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy any sooner, harming the dollar.

Even during the early European session on Monday, there has been little change in key currency pairings. Global equities were trading near all-time highs.

The dollar index was steady for the day at 90.141 at 1125 GMT. The euro was 0.1% down versus the dollar, trading at $1.2159.

The Australian dollar, which is seen as a gauge for risk appetite, was up 0.2% against the US dollar, trading at 0.77535.

“Post Friday, we're looking at a foreign exchange market with no cause for the Fed to change its tempo, and we still have supportive monetary policy in the United States,” said Kit Juckes, Societe Generale's director of FX strategy. “Even then, we are becoming more positive about global economic and health viewpoints.”

On Thursday, market players were concentrating on US inflation statistics and the European Central Bank meeting.

The ECB's dovish attitude implies that the bank is in no haste to halt the pace of purchasing under the 1.85 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion) Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP).

Authorities at the US Federal Reserve have begun to explore drawing back such assistance.

“A gap has lately emerged between ECB and Fed, which have both indicated a readiness to discuss QE reduction at forthcoming meetings,” MUFG currency analyst Lee Hardman said in a client note.