Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin crew return as astronauts after historic launch

For 10 minutes and 10 seconds on Tuesday, Jeff Bezos wasn’t the richest man on Earth.

His Blue Origin company launched him into spaceflight history on Tuesday. Its first crewed New Shepard rocket blasted off from the Texas desert for the brief flight, also carrying his brother and the oldest and youngest people to ever have flown in space.

“Best day ever!” Bezos said after touchdown.

The capsule carrying the Blue Origin crew accelerated to more than three times the speed of sound before it reached beyond the 80 kilometer boundary (about 262,000 feet) the U.S. uses to mark the edge of space. The crew capsule reached an altitude of 107 kilometers (351,210 feet), and the rocket hit a top speed of 2,233 mph during the launch.

The crew floated in microgravity for a couple minutes, before the capsule returned and landed under a set of parachutes to end the mission after 10 minutes and 10 seconds.

The launch marked Blue Origin’s entrance into the market of private spaceflight, joining Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic — its direct competitor in the sector of suborbital tourism — and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“This is a tiny little step of what Blue Origin is going to do,” Bezos told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan after he touched down. “What we’re really trying to do is build reusable space vehicles. It’s the only way to build a road to space, and we need to build a road to space so that our children can build the future.”

Branson congratulated Bezos after the mission.

“Well done,” Branson tweeted. “Impressive! Very best to all the crew from me and all the team at @virgingalactic”

In addition to his singular net worth, Bezos, 57, is also the only space founder to ride the first crewed flight of his company. While SpaceX and Virgin Galactic have launched astronauts before, Bezos is the first to put himself on the inaugural crew flight.

Also on the flight were Wally Funk, 82, and Oliver Daemen, 18 — respectively the oldest and youngest humans to ever fly in space — and Bezos’ brother, Mark, 53.

Bezos invited his brother and Funk, a female aerospace pioneer, to join the flight. Daemen was a late addition. His seat was originally part of a public auction, but the auction’s winner, an anonymous person who bid $28 million to fly with Bezos, was unable to make the July 20 launch date. Daemen’s father, Joes, CEO of a private equity firm in the Netherlands, was also a bidder, with Daemen scheduled to fly on Blue Origin’s second crew launch as a paying passenger. When the mystery bidder backed out, the company moved Daemen up to the first launch.

Tuesday’s launch also came on another historic milestone — the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

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[WE_OF_THE_NOV]

I feel like "space enthusiasts" is more appropriate, let's save the "Astronaut" title for the pioneers that risked their lives over the years that got these guys here, with untested tech compared to a calculator. I'm quite sure this was relatively safe as a baby spoon to what they went through. That's not to take anything away from what Bezos and others are accomplishing, I just feel like this, compared to risks, and torturous training, loss of life, and absolute insane tests of will and courage those pilots went through is a completely different thing.

[flyfishjunkie]

BTW, they weren’t a “crew”, they were only do nothing passengers……

[shart]

Mark Zuckerberg rn: *they're getting close*

[randydoak]

What's so historic? Alan Shepherd did this 60 years ago and the entire nation shared in his accomplishment.

[hiteshwadhwa]

Astronaut should be taking offense now… anyone who can buy the ticket, will be an astronaut 👩‍🚀

[bananaisgood]

cool, but calling them astronauts seems a bit disrespectful towards actual astronauts.

[pandemicmbm]

Lol, all that just to barely leave earth. Did it even leave the earth's atmosphere? I'm still more impressed about the red bull guy jumping from Earth's atmosphere.

[alexruiz]

Astronauts🤣🤣🤣, i guess every time i seat in a plane automatically i become a pilot🤣🤣🤣

[onelapmaster]

Wow, that landing must have knocked a few teeth out.

[believeinyourself_]

"The sky's the limit" when you don't have to pay taxes!

[pocketchocolate]

I didn't see any thrusters slowing down the landing, It landed rough!

[midshipsport]

Jeff Bezos will look like an alien when he gets out of the rocket.

[camerongreatbatch]

I think Richard Branson's experience would be better

[DivinesLegacy]

I am so jealous of that 18 year old. He went to space and I’m here watching him do it.

[Juvernrocks]

So happy for that older lady. After years of rejection She finally got to do her dream

[taniatina]

I think richard brendson has done this very well

[raynold]

An aircraft built by private American companies went 314, 000 feet high and landed on a runway 60 years ago.

[YouTubeFunHandle]

Shoot, I missed the launch. Then learned that they already returned. This is amateur.

[carlosgarcia-jzdq]

Amazon employees being able to afford once a year vacation, now that would be a human achievement

[nofollowers]

Bezos: Returns to earth with a warning that CO2 is killing our thin atmosphere.
Bezos: Promotes thrill-seeking space tourism that consumes billions of gallons of fossil fuels.
Me: Doesn't Disneyland make thrill rides like this at 20 bucks a pop?