DELIVERED TO THE STARS!
Amazon billionaire Bezos reaches the edge of space nine days after arch-rival Branson... but he soars 13 miles higher
BILLIONAIRE Jeff Bezos celebrated his ‘best day ever’ after reaching the edge of space yesterday.
The world’s richest man was beaten in the private space race by rival tycoon Richard Branson, who became the first civilian astronaut on July 11.
But by reaching an altitude of only 53 miles (85km), Mr Branson fell short of the 62mile (100km) Karman Line – which many see as the true boundary of space – so Mr Bezos has bragging rights after reaching almost 66 miles (106km) yesterday.
The 57-year-old Amazon founder, wearing his trademark cowboy hat, spent ten minutes and ten seconds on his trip, from lift-off to landing. Also on board were his brother Mark, 53, and Wally Funk, one of the 13 women who passed Nasa’s astronaut training programme in the 1960s but was denied the chance to go into orbit because she was female. At 82, she is oldest person to reach space.
The fourth member of the crew flying with Mr Bezos’s space tourism firm Blue Origin was Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen, whose father, the founder of a private equity fund, paid for his ticket. He is now the youngest astronaut in history. Mr Bezos, who floated out of his seat during four minutes of weightlessness and saw the curve of the Earth, described the trip as his ‘best day ever’ after the space capsule touched down at Blue Origin’s launch site in Texas.
Replying to a status check from mission control, he said: ‘Astronaut Bezos in my seat – happy, happy, happy.’ At a press conference, the tycoon, worth more than €173billion, said: ‘I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer, because you paid for all this.’
The journey was a ‘tiny little step’ in his goal of building ‘a road to space’ and opening up such flights to more people. As well as Mr Branson, Tesla founder Elon Musk is also aiming to enter the space tourism market. Mr Bezos, who travelled to space in a rocket called New Shepard, was met back on Earth by family members and his partner Lauren Sanchez.
The Bezos brothers pretended to swim while weightless and tossed sweets in each other’s mouths. They had written ‘Hi’ and ‘Mom’ on their palms and put their hands together for their mother Jacklyn, 74.