Jeff Bezos blasts into space, returns on own rocket
VAN HORN, TEXAS >> Jeff Bezos blasted into space Tuesday on his rocket company’s first flight with people on board, becoming the second billionaire in just over a week to ride his own spacecraft.
The Amazon founder was accompanied by his handpicked group: his brother, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands, and an 82-year-old aviation pioneer from Texas, the youngest and oldest to ever fly in space.
“Best day ever!” Bezos said when the capsule touched down on the desert floor in remote West Texas after the 10-minute flight.
Named after America’s first astronaut, Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket soared on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the date chosen by Bezos for its historical significance. He held fast to it, even as Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson pushed up his own flight from New Mexico in the race for space tourist dollars and beat him to space by nine days.
Unlike Branson’s piloted rocket plane, Bezos’ capsule was automated and required no official staff on board for the up-and-down flight.
Blue Origin reached an altitude of about 66 miles, more than 10 miles higher than Branson’s July 11 ride. The 60-foot booster accelerated to Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound, to get the capsule high enough, before separating and landing upright.
Tossing Skittles
During their several minutes of weightlessness, video from inside the capsule showed the four floating, doing somersaults, tossing Skittles candies and throwing balls. Cheering, whooping and exclamations of, “Wow,” could be heard.
The capsule landed under parachutes, with Bezos and his guests briefly experiencing nearly six times the force of gravity, or 6 G’s, on the way back.
Led by Bezos, they climbed out of the capsule after touchdown with wide grins, embracing parents, partners and children, then popped open bottles of sparkling wine, spraying one another.
“My expectations were high and they were dramatically exceeded,” Bezos said later.
Their flight lasted 10 minutes and 10 seconds, five minutes shy of Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 flight in 1961. Shepard’s daughters, Laura and Julie, were introduced at a press conference a few hours later.
Sharing Bezos’ dreamcome-true adventure was Wally Funk, from the Dallas area, one of 13 female pilots who went through the same tests as NASA’s allmale astronaut corps in the early 1960s, but never made it into space.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to finally get it up there,” Funk said after the flight. “I want to go again — fast.”
Joining them was the company’s first paying customer, Oliver Daemen, the last-minute fill-in for the mystery winner of a $28 million auction who opted for a later flight. The Dutch teen’s father took part in the auction, and agreed on a lower undisclosed price last week when Blue Origin offered his son the vacated seat.
Among the items brought on the flight was a pair of aviator Amelia Earhart’s goggles and a piece of fabric from the original Wright Flyer.
“I got goose bumps,” said Angel Herrera of El Paso, who watched the launch from inside Van Horn High School, about 25 miles away. “The hair on the back of my neck stood up, just witnessing history.”