Jeff Bezos and the Blue Origin Crew Successfully Complete Their Flight to Space
Making him the second billionaire this month to touch the edge of space behind Richard Branson.
Jeff Bezos just made history this morning, he along with his Blue Origin Crew successfully completed its first-ever passenger launch to space in Van Horn, Texas. Inside the high-flying New Shepard 16 vehicle was his brother Mark Bezos, 82-year old aviator Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen.
The entire crew departed the ground at 9:15 a.m. EDT and landed safely back to Earth after 10 minutes and 18 seconds by way of a parachute that slowed them down to approximately 16mph. In a matter of minutes, they were able to travel 62 miles above Earth and mid-flight, Bezos expressed his excitement and said “Blue Control, Bezos. Best day ever!” The decision to execute this mission on July 20, 2021 was entirely by design as this is the very date that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the moon back in 1969.
This makes Bezos the second billionaire to catapult into space in July 2021. On July 11, Richard Branson — the founder of Virgin Group — carried a full flight crew on the VSS Unity plane which is owned by Virgin Galactic — Blue Origin’s main competitor in the space tourism industry.
Peep a look at the jaw-dropping mission here above.
Elsewhere in tech news, Eviation has announced its first all-electric passenger plane.
