What happened Shares of Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) jumped 6.3% higher in Monday afternoon trading as of 1:50 p.m. EDT -- and for a most surprising reason. The big news today isn't what Virgin Galactic is up to, you see, but what its arch rival in space tourism, Blue Origin, is doing. Image source: Getty Images. So what Specifically, this morning Blue Origin announced that company Founder Jeff Bezos (and his brother Mark Bezos, too) will fly on the inaugural crewed flight of the company's New Shepard spacecraft -- along with the winning bidder of an auction to buy the first ticket on that flight. Bids in that auction, by the way, hit $3.2 million, and there are still five more days of bidding to go. You can probably assume that the bidding will go higher now that some lucky (and/or wealthy) customer is going to get several uninterrupted minutes with the billionaire Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) founder (and his brother) in which to pitch business ideas. Simply put: Bezos has just turned New Shepard's first-ever up-and-down trip (the spaceship isn't actually fast enough to achieve orbit) into the ultimate opportunity for the winning bidder to give him an "elevator pitch." Now what Of course, the broader importance of this development is this: By committing to fly himself (and his brother) to space, Jeff Bezos is implicitly giving would-be space tourists his assurance that he's 100% certain space tourism is safe. That's actually a positive development for Virgin Galactic as well as for Blue Origin because it could boost interest in the space-tourism offerings of both companies. Long story short, Sir Richard Branson may not end up not being the first CEO to fly to space in his own spaceship. (But wouldn't that be a hilarious twist if Branson wins the bidding and becomes Bezos's first customer!?) But even if he doesn't, this is also a positive development for Virgin Galactic. 10 stocks we like better than Virgin Galactic Holdings IncWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of May 11, 2021 John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2022 $1,920 calls on Amazon and short January 2022 $1,940 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source