Billionaire Jeff Bezos has returned from a joy flight into space. He says he reached a “profound” realization above the Earth’s atmosphere. Jeff Bezos, the richest man on the planet, has described his brief trip to space as “the first step of something big” after blasting aboard a Blue Origin rocket on its first human flight. The missile launched from a base in the west Texas desert at 8:12 am on Tuesday local time (11:12 pm AEST) and hit 3700km/h speeds as it shot towards space.
The capsule separated from its booster and crossed the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary between Earth and space, at 100km altitude. A quick 11 minutes after takeoff, it landed back on Earth. The trip was timed to coincide with the 52nd anniversary of the first moon landing. Bezos was joined by his brother Mark, 82-year-old aviator Wally Funk, and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, who won his seat in an auction, making him Blue Origin’s “first paying customer”. Blue Origin has not disclosed how much he paid. Funk, a barrier-breaking female pilot, completed testing in the 1960s for the Women in Space Program but stopped going to space by gender.
The four-person crew appeared at a media conference after returning to Earth. Jeffrey Ashby, a former space shuttle commander who now works as Blue Origin’s chief of mission assurance, presented them with their “wings” – a badge signifying their visit to space. Ashby described Funk, Daemen, and the Bezos brothers as “the first four of millions to follow”. “I’m so happy. Thank you, Jeff,” Bezos said as he accepted his badge. “There are few people I know more deserving of this, Jeff. Seriously,” said Ashby. “And I don’t know what you’ll do next, but I can’t wait to watch.”
Once it was his turn to speak, Bezos started by thanking a list of people, including the engineers, trainers, and safety experts who made the flight possible. “I want to thank every Amazon employee and customer because you guys paid for all this,” he added, getting a laugh from the crowd. “Seriously, for every Amazon customer out there and every Amazon employee, thank you very much from the bottom of my heart. It’s very appreciated.” He then described how flying to space and experiencing zero gravity had made him feel. Oh my god! My expectations were high and dramatically exceeded,” Bezos said.
“It felt so typical. It is almost like we, as humans, evolved to be in that environment. Which I know is impossible. But it felt so serene, peaceful, and floating – much nicer than being in full gravity. It’s a very pleasurable experience. “The most profound piece of it was looking out at the Earth and its atmosphere. “Every astronaut, everybody who’s been up into space, they say this, that it changes them. And they look at it and are amazed and shocked by the Earth’s beauty and fragility. And I can vouch for that. “When you get up above (the atmosphere), you see it’s fragile. It’s this tiny, little, fragile thing. And as we move about the planet, we’re damaging it. “It’s one thing to recognize that intellectually, and it’s another thing to see with your own eyes how fragile it is. And that was amazing.
