Jeff Bezos founded one of the most successful companies in the world 27 years ago. He just took on a new title after stepping down as the CEO of Amazon earlier this month- astronaut. The world’s richest person, who is worth an estimated $205 billion went past the edge of the space on Tuesday. Bezos his brother Mark, Wally Funk, and Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen were also in the spacecraft. Bezos, his brother, Funk, and Daemen traveled to the edge of space aboard the New Shepard rocket owned by his company Blue Origin.
New Shepard rocket designed by his space company lifted off from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site at 8:12 a.m. local time. The rocket designed by Blue Origin as well as the capsule that rides atop it are reusable. So, the company can launch its rocket and capsule many times.
A capsule carrying the world’s richest person and the other passengers rocketed past the Karman line at an altitude of 107 kilometers above the earth. Bezos and other passengers experienced a few moments of weightlessness before the capsule returned home. For more than 10 minutes he was not the richest man on Earth.
Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin, and other companies
The launch marked his space company’s entrance into the market of private spaceflight. Blue Origin will have to compete with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
New Shepard’s inaugural flight with astronauts represents a milestone in its progress toward Bezos’ vision. The founder of Amazon founded Blue Origin with the goal to create a future where millions are living in space.
His space company is also working on a crewed lander called Blue Moon. Blue Origin hopes to use Blue Moon to deliver astronauts and cargo to the lunar surface in the future.
