VAN HORN, Texas – On Tuesday, Jeff Bezos wasn’t the richest man in the world for 10 minutes and 10 seconds.
His company Blue Origin brought him into space history on Tuesday. His first manned New Shepard rocket launched for the short flight out of the Texas desert and also carried his brother and the oldest and youngest people to have ever flown in space.
“Best day ever!” said Bezos after touching up. “My expectations were high and were dramatically exceeded.”
This photo of Blue Origin, Blue Origins New Shepard rocket takes off on Tuesday July 20, 2021. The rocket carries passengers Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and the space tourism company Blue Origin, his brother Mark Bezos, Oliver Daemen and Wally Funk.
Blue origin | AP
The capsule with the crew of Blue Origin accelerated to more than three times the speed of sound before reaching the 80-kilometer limit (about 50 miles) with which the US marks the edge of space. The crew capsule reached an altitude of 107 kilometers (66 miles) and the missile reached a top speed of 2,233 miles per hour during launch.
The crew hovered in weightlessness for a few minutes before the capsule returned and landed under a set of parachutes, completing the mission after 10 minutes and 10 seconds.
The launch marked Blue Origin’s entry into the private space market, joining Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic – its direct competitor in the suborbital tourism sector – and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“This is a tiny little step from what Blue Origin will do,” Bezos told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan after landing. “What we’re really trying to do is build reusable spacecraft. This is the only way we can build a road to space, and we have to build a road to space so our children can build the future.”
See also: Jeff Bezos sees a life beyond Amazon after a historic space trip
Branson congratulated Bezos after the mission.
“Well done,” tweeted Branson. “Impressive! All the best to the entire crew of me and the entire team of @virgingalactic”
Make history
In addition to his unique fortune, Bezos, 57, is also the sole founder of space to operate his company’s first manned flight. While SpaceX and Virgin Galactic have already launched astronauts, Bezos is the first to embark on the first crew flight.
Also on the flight were Wally Funk, 82, and Oliver Daemen, 18 – the oldest and youngest people ever to have flown in space – and Bezos’ brother Mark, 53.
“I’ve waited a long time for it to finally be up there,” said Funk after his return to Earth. “I want to go again – quickly.”
Billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of e-commerce company Amazon.com Inc, his brother Mark Bezos, a private equity manager, pioneer aviator Wally Funk and the youngest Dutch high school graduate Oliver Daemen pose in an undated photo before their scheduled flight on board the Blue Originboard New Shepard Missile near Van Horn, Texas, USA
Blue origin | Reuters
Bezos invited his brother and Funk, a space pioneer, to join the flight. Daemen was a late addition. His seat was originally part of a public auction, but the auction winner, an anonymous person who bid $ 28 million to fly Bezos, was unable to meet the July 20th launch date. Daemen’s father Joes, CEO of a private equity firm in the Netherlands, was also a bidder, with Daemen being the paying passenger on Blue Origin’s second crew launch. When the mysterious bidder stepped down, the company rescheduled Daemen to start first.
The launch on Tuesday also occurred on another historic milestone – the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Bezos’ vision of space
The launch of New Shepard marks a milestone in the Bezos vision. He founded Blue Origin with the goal of “creating a future where millions of people in space live and work to help the earth”.
The New Shepard rocket and the capsule on it are reusable and can take off, land and start again multiple times. The missile system is in many ways a trailblazer for other, larger Blue Origin projects – like the New Glenn orbital rocket.
An artist’s illustration of a New Glenn rocket on the launch pad in Florida.
Blue origin
Like New Shepard, the New Glenn rocket booster is designed to be reusable, with the company expecting each one to take off and land 25 times. New Glenn, with a first launch date for late 2022, is about 320 feet tall and is expected to lift nearly 50 tons of payload into low earth orbit. The rockets are named after Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard and John Glenn, the first American in space and the first American to orbit Earth. In 1998, Senator Glenn, then 77, became the oldest person in space.
Blue Origin has also developed several engines to power its two rockets, including the BE-3, BE-4, and BE-7 engines.
Blue Origin is testing one of the BE-4 rocket engines the company is developing for the launch of its New Glenn rocket.
Blue origin | gif from @thesheetztweetz
Blue Origin is also working on a manned lander called the Blue Moon, which the company hopes will one day bring astronauts and cargo to the lunar surface.
Space billionaires
A mural depicting Jeff Bezo and his brother Mark Bezo is seen in Van Horn, Texas, two days prior to the scheduled launch of Blue Origin’s maiden flight to the edge of space by American billionaire Jeff Bezos and his three crew members in the nearby town Van Horn, Texas, USA July 18, 2021.
Thom Baur | Reuters
The company’s only direct competition in the market for bringing space tourists to the edge of space is Branson’s Virgin Galactic, a sector known as suborbital tourism. SpaceX is preparing to launch its first private mission called Inspiration4 in September, but Musk’s company is sending its capsules further into space on multi-day flights, known as orbital tourism.
Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic developed rocket-powered starships, but that’s where the similarities end. As Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket launches vertically, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo system is deployed into the air and returns to Earth like an airplane gliding for a runway landing.
And while Blue Origin takes off autonomously, the Virgin Galactic system is flown by two pilots. Branson’s company has so far conducted four test flights in space but does not expect to fly paying customers before 2022.
Blue Origin’s auction raised $ 28 million, but a seat on a suborbital spaceship is usually much cheaper. Virgin Galactic has historically sold reservations between $ 200,000 and $ 250,000 per ticket and recently billed the Italian Air Force about $ 500,000 per ticket for a training room flight.
The tourism market is a thriving part of the space economy valued at more than $ 420 billion. Yet its high standing – given the much more exciting human element – means it has a strong and far-reaching impact on the space industry, with investors often pointing to astronaut flights to add to excitement about the broader impact of the alien market.
– CNBC’s Marty Steinberg contributed to this report.
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