Jeff Bezos, the 57-year-old founder of Amazon, has a new title to add to his résumé: astronaut.
Bezos successfully flew to the edge of space Tuesday aboard a rocket and capsule developed by his private spaceflight company, Blue Origin. The billionaire entrepreneur made history by being part of the first unpiloted suborbital flight with an all-civilian crew. The much-anticipated trip was also the first crewed launch for Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
Bezos launched to space at around 9:11 a.m. ET Tuesday from a site in the west Texas desert southeast of El Paso. After liftoff, the New Shepard rocket accelerated toward space at three times the speed of sound. At an altitude of 250,000 feet, the capsule separated, taking Bezos and his crew to the edge of space. The craft then descended under parachutes and landed again in the Texas desert. The entire flight lasted roughly 10 minutes.
Both the New Shepard rocket and capsule are designed to be reusable.
Bezos’ launch was just nine days after another billionaire, British entrepreneur Richard Branson, flew to the edge of space on a rocket-powered vehicle designed by his own space tourism company, Virgin Galactic. Both flights — combined with the competition between the rival billionaires — have captured global attention and garnered interest and enthusiasm for the nascent space tourism industry.
In an interview Monday on NBC’s “TODAY” show, he described his anticipation for the trip.
“I can’t wait to see what it’s going to be like. People who go into space say that they come back changed,” Bezos told “TODAY” co-host Hoda Kotb. “I can’t wait to see what it’s going to do to me.”
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Joining Bezos on the flight was his brother, Mark, and Wally Funk, 82, a former test pilot who was one of the Mercury 13 women who underwent training in the 1960s to demonstrate that women could qualify for NASA’s astronaut corps. Funk is now the oldest person to reach space.
Rounding out the four-person crew was Oliver Daemen, 18, of the Netherlands, who now holds the title of the youngest astronaut.
Bezos’ flight was a suborbital jaunt, which means he and his crew members didn’t actually enter into orbit around Earth. Rather, the capsule reached the edge of space, at an altitude of around 65 miles, where the passengers experienced roughly four minutes of weightlessness.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
