Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin spaceship blasts off in spectacular launch – World News

Jeff Bezos – the world’s richest man – has completed his history-making flight into space aboard the Blue Origin ship.

The billionaire, 57, took off from a desert site in West Texas on a voyage lasting just over 10 minutes to the edge of space.

The journey passed off without incident, with the Amazon founder and three other astronauts reaching the the so-called Karman line.

The crew could be heard telling the control room the trip was “amazing”, with shouting and whooping also audible.

The galactic trip came just nine days after Sir Richard Branson, 71, completed a similar, successful journey.

And although the Brit got to space first, American Bezos has flown higher.

His ship, New Shepard, reached 62 miles (100 km) – compared to 53 miles (86 km) for Branson’s Virgin Galactic.

Asked how it felt during the flight, Bezos said “Oh my god. My expectations were high, and they were dramatically exceeded.”

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He said that zero-G was a “big surprise” to him because “it felt so normal.”

“It felt so . . . like, almost like we were as humans evolved to be in that environment. That’s impossible, but it felt peaceful.

“My expectations were high and they were dramatically exceeded.”

He then added: “The most profound thing for me was looking back at Earth.

“I was awestruck but its beauty and its fragility.

“As we move around the planet we are damaging it,” he added.

Bezos was joined on the journey by his brother Mark Bezos, 53, pioneering female aviator Wally Funk, 82, and Oliver Daemen, 18.

And Funk and Daemen became the oldest and youngest people to reach space.

The flight coincided with the anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin becoming the first humans to walk on the moon, on July 20, 1969.

Funk was one of the so-called Mercury 13 group of women who trained to become NASA astronauts in the early 1960s but was passed over because of her gender.

Daemen, Blue Origin’s first paying customer, is set to study physics and innovation management in the Netherlands.

His father, who heads investment management firm Somerset Capital Partners, was on site to watch his son fly to space.

The launch was also witnessed by members of the Bezos family and Blue Origin employees, and a few spectators gathered along the highway before dawn.

Even though it did not enter orbit, the flight was a milestone for Bezos, the founder of Amazon, which started more than 20 years ago.

As his New Shepard capsule safely touched down, he could be heard celebrating, shouting: “Best day ever”.

Once in space, Bezos and his passengers unbuckled the belts and floated around the capsule, cheering in the capsule as they experienced about four minutes of weightlessness.

“You have a very happy crew up here, I want you to know,” Bezos, who is worth £151 billion despite a costly divorce, told mission control.

During the weightlessness period, Funk could be heard shouting, “it is dark up here”, followed by a status check call from each of the four, with Bezos having to remind Wally and Oliver to confirm.

As the crew celebrated, the booster rocket landed vertically back on Earth.

Details

New Shepard hurtled at speeds of upwards of 2,200 miles (3,540 km) per hour to an altitude of about 62 miles (100 km), the distance the international aeronautics body has defined as the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space.

After the capsule separated from the booster, the crew were able to unbuckle for a few minutes of weightlessness.

The capsule then fell back to Earth under parachutes, using a last-minute retro-thrust system that expelled a “pillow of air” for a soft landing in the Texas desert.

Bezos could be seen high-fiving crew members as he exited the pod in a cowboy hat, with all the astronauts then seen celebrating with friends and family in the desert.

Bezos also hugged his parents Jackie and Mike as he exited the cabin, while Funk thanked the Amazon founder for inviting her aboard New Shepard.

The launch is another step in the race to establish a space tourism sector that Swiss investment bank UBS estimates will reach $3 billion annually in a decade.

Another billionaire tech mogul, Elon Musk, plans to send an all-civilian crew on a several-day orbital mission on his Crew Dragon capsule in September.

Blue Origin aims for the first of two more passenger flights this year to happen in September or October.

More than 6,000 people from at least 143 countries entered an auction to become the first paying customer.

The auction winner, who made a $28 million bid, dropped out of Tuesday’s flight, opening the way for Daemen.

Virgin Galactic has said 600 wealthy would-be citizen astronauts have also booked reservations, priced at about $250,000 per ticket.

Branson has said he aims ultimately to lower the price to about $40,000 per seat.