Jeff Bezos’ short trip into space was also a commercial for Rivian

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After years of preparation and spending billions of dollars on the project, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos became one of the first people to ride a rocket built by his other company, Blue Origin, to the edge of space. But the event itself was also an opportunity for Bezos to promote a third investment in Amazon’s broader portfolio: EV startup Rivian.

Throughout the broadcast, Rivian’s electric pickup truck and SUV could be seen ferrying Bezos and his astronauts — an unsurprising decision given that Amazon now owns more than 10 percent of the EV startup after driving it and participating in multiple funding rounds. The Blue Origin live hosts made sure to let all viewers know what they’re watching, too.

With commercial spaces, everything is advertising

Here comes the astronauts. There you see Jeff Bezos in the foreground, Oliver Damon stepping into Rivian,” Blue Origin’s director of Astronauts and Orbital Sales, Ariane Cornell, said cheerfully during the broadcast as the group hopped in one of the startup’s SUV to head for a rocket for a ride into space. Then We got a long, continuous aerial shot of the SUV driving toward the podium, split side by side during an interview with Mercury 13 legend Wally Funk.

After the crew landed safely an hour later, they’re back again: a group of Rivian pickups and SUVs cruise over the West Texas landscape to greet the recently returned astronauts. (Electric cars were tucked between a few pickup trucks and other SUVs made by Ford — which also owns more than 10 percent of the Rivian.)

reticle display

The Rivians – most likely on loan, due to the fact that they still wore the manufacturer’s plates – weren’t around just for streaming either. At one point, Blue Origin used its sliding camping kitchen on a pair of Rivian vans to cook sausage and carne asada for guests attending the launch — an optional feature the startup has often touted in the lead-up to production.

Blue Origin is a private company, and like Virgin Galactic — which launched founder Richard Branson to the edge of space less than two weeks ago — this first mission was as much about promotion as it was about science or exploration. But while Branson’s event had a musical festive vibe, Blue Origin was more in line with Bezos’ infamous accounts. It was an opportunity for him to promote the things he plans to spend his time on now that he’s no longer the CEO of Amazon, like his space company and his climate fund, and to throw bones at the electric car company that Amazon dumped with a bunch of money. Perhaps the only amazing thing is that the delivery that Van Rivian is building for Amazon wasn’t there either.

Rivian already has a lot of money – but is planning an IPO

It’s not like Rivian, which recently delayed the first deliveries of its pickup truck and SUV until later this year, really needs attention. The startup has already raised over $8 billion so far. Rivian has also proven to be adept at creating effective promotions of its own. But Rivian is currently in the process of preparing for an initial public offering, so it is possible that this offer of joint cooperation could be in the hands of bankers.

Commercialization of the space industry has been going on for a while, but it has really intensified in recent years as companies like Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX have matured. These companies have set out to control everything from “boring” tasks such as cargo flights and science missions to more dangerous endeavors such as confining people to a spacecraft. They also recognized the value of the eyeballs that these tasks attract. After all, before SpaceX launched the first human into space from US soil last year, these astronauts also took a promotional flight for the rocket — in a Tesla Model X.

Additional reporting by Joey Rowlett.

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