The Amazon founder will be accompanied on the historic journey by his brother, Mark Bezos, as well as the oldest and youngest people ever to go to space, Wally Funk, 82-years-old, and Oliver Daemon, 18.

Funk is a trailblazing female pilot who trained to be an astronaut with the so-called “Mercury 13” program during the original U.S.-Soviet space race era but was then told they were only sending men to space at the time. Funk still blazed trails for women in aerospace, becoming the first female Federal Aviation Administration inspector.

Daemon is a Dutch student set to begin classes at Utrecht University this fall, and is the first paying customer for Blue Origin after the initial auction winner backed out. Daemon graduated high school in 2020, and has said he hopes his trip inspires other young people. Blue Origin said the anonymous bidder who paid $28 million won't make it on Tuesday due to "scheduling conflicts." The company has not disclosed how much Daemon paid for his seat.

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket and capsule is now on the launchpad at the company's "Launch Site One" facility in a remote area in the West Texas desert, about 25 miles north of the small town of Van Horn.

The reusable suborbital rocket system, which launches and lands vertically, was rolled out early Tuesday morning, before its scheduled take-off at 9 a.m. ET.

"The launch team completed vehicle rollout this morning and final preparations are underway," Blue Origin tweeted at 6:53 a.m. ET.

Bezos joked with reporters that he did not have his "last meal" before taking off on his space travel company's first flight with people on board.

As the Amazon and Blue Origin founder served food to members of the press gathered at the remote rocket launch site in the West Texas desert, one reporter jokingly asked: "Is this your last meal?"

"Hey, did somebody say 'last meal?'" Bezos, wearing a cowboy hat and sunglasses, responded to laughter. "I don't think we should put it that way. Let's talk about it in a different way."

Chicken thighs, mac 'n' cheese and black-eyed peas were on the menu -- a "favorite" recipe by Bezos' grandmother. He also handed out copies of the recipe.

"Now, if you don't like this, just keep it to yourself," Bezos said to more laughter.

Bezos told reporters that he and his three crewmates had finished their training.

"We're going to have a little refresher early tomorrow morning," he added. "We have an early wake up tomorrow."

Liftoff of the inaugural Blue Origin flight is scheduled for 9 a.m. ET from a rural complex just north of Van Horn, Texas.

In total, the flight will be 11 minutes, with approximately three minutes spent above the so-called Karman line that is defined by some as the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space. After re-entry, the astronauts are set to descend back to Earth in their capsule with a parachute-landing in the west Texas desert.

ABC News will carry live coverage of the event, which will also be streamed on Blue Origin's website. The live broadcast will begin at 7:30 a.m. ET. Unlike most spaceflights, there are no on-site public viewing areas in the vicinity of the launch site. The newly-minted astronauts are set to have a press conference shortly after landing back on earth.

There is no pilot aboard the fully-autonomous capsule. While Blue Origin's New Shepard has flown 15 test flights, Tuesday's will be the first with humans on board.

The definition of "space" has emerged as a heated debate point in the new space race, as Sir Richard Branson took heat for not passing the Karman line (roughly 62 miles above earth) during his Virgin Galactic spaceflight earlier this month. Neither Blue Origin nor Virgin Galactic's flights will reach Earth's orbit, however, the way Elon Musk's SpaceX missions have. Musk, also a billionaire player in the new space race, on Twitter has called out this "big difference."

While the modern space race has become the arena of the ultra-wealthy at a time when a global pandemic on earth has exacerbated inequities, some argue the rise of private sector involvement has saved NASA money and accelerated technological advances -- which in the long-term has the potential to open up space tourism to all who have been curious about the cosmos.

Still, the billionaire daredevils using themselves as guinea pigs for their private space tourism firms have not had the same support astronauts garnered during the original U.S.-Soviet space race. Animosity was exacerbated by reports that Bezos and Musk have avoided income taxes. A petition calling for Bezos to stay in space has garnered headlines and more than 160,000 signatures.

In an interview with ABC News' "Good Morning America" just one day ahead of the spaceflight, Bezos said he is curious how briefly leaving Earth will "change" him.

"I don't know what it's going to mean for me," Bezos said. "I don't know, I'm very curious about what tomorrow is actually going to bring. Everybody who's been to space says it changes them in some way. And I'm just really excited to figure out how it's going to change me."