![]() The two previous suborbital NASA launches-60 years ago-involved a lot of checking gauges and flipping switches. At 7:43, Blue Origin technicians closed the hatch and climbed down from the gantry. Funk stuck a postcard of herself as a Mercury 13 candidate to her window, with plans to shoot a picture of it when she reached space. At 7:34, they entered the hatch and buckled themselves in. Then Bezos led the crew across a skybridge-each ringing a silver ceremonial bell as they crossed-to the capsule, which rests on New Shepard like, well, a sex toy. Original plans to accommodate a modest press contingent got jettisoned like a booster rocket, as the company invited dozens of reporters to its remote location in the West Texas desert, where Bezos owns over 300,000 acres and a mountain range.Īt 7:25 Central Daylight Time, on the company’s launch pad, the passengers climbed five flights of steps, scaling the height of the 160-foot New Shepard reusable rocket, pausing briefly inside an fireproof “astronaut safety shelter,” a tightly enclosed fireproof room that can be used in the event of an emergency evacuation. In the run-up to the flight, the normally press-shy company suddenly turned showbiz, releasing glossy videos and photos of the crew decked out in their bright blue jumpsuits. It began with a show of confidence, the crew bubbling with enthusiasm as they prepared, and ended in a jubilant celebration of the newly minted astronauts as they reunited with their loved ones after their brief time away. Lasting only 10 minutes and 10 seconds, the flight seemed flawless, from launch to touchdown. (He actually was an underbidder the unknown person who originally won the auction with a $28 million bid postponed their fight due to “scheduling difficulties.”) The latter two are now the oldest and youngest humans to sample space travel. Joining Bezos-and the ranks of the 580 people who have previously traveled to space-were his brother Mark, 53, a volunteer fireman and philanthropist who now runs an equity fund Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk, an 82-year-old aviation pioneer who was denied a chance to become a Mercury astronaut because she was a woman and Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old student whose bid of millions won him the distinction of becoming Blue’s first paying customer. ![]() He was the first passenger on New Shepard, the suborbital rocket system built by his company, Blue Origin. It took him a little over three minutes to achieve that altitude. Today, funded by the billions of dollars he made from that much-expanded company, Jeff Bezos traveled the most important 65 miles in his life: straight up, to the doorstep of space. ![]() Assuming a normal highway speed, they would have zipped past 65 mile markers every hour during their 2,500-mile journey. In 1994, Jeff Bezos and his then-wife, MacKenzie, drove from New York City to Seattle so he could start a new company to sell books on the internet. ![]()
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