Jeff Bezos blasted into space on July 20, in the first crewed flight of his rocket ship, New Shepard.
The billionaire was accompanied by his brother, Mark, Wally Funk, an 82-year-old pioneer of the space race, and 18-year-old student Oliver Daemen.
They travelled in a capsule with the biggest windows flown in space, offering stunning views of the Earth.
All four passengers have now parachuted safely back to Earth after their 10-minute, 10-second trip.
New Shepard, built by Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin, is designed to serve the burgeoning market for space tourism among the super-wealthy.
On this flight was the oldest person who has been to space – Wally Funk – and the youngest, Oliver Daemen.
The spacecraft lifted off at 09:12 EDT from a private launch site near Van Horn, Texas.
After the capsule touched down, Jeff Bezos said: “Astronaut Bezos [his callsign]: Best day ever!”
He later said: “My expectations were high and they were dramatically exceeded.”
Two minutes into the flight, the capsule separated from its rocket and continued upwards towards the Karman Line – the most widely recognized boundary of space, 100km up.
The passengers experienced about four minutes of weightlessness, and were able to unstrap from their seats to float around and enjoy the views of our planet far below.
Jeff Bezos said he was surprised by the sensation of microgravity: “It felt so normal.”
As the capsule passed the Karman Line, the astronauts could be heard shouting “wow!” and cheering.
“Oh my word, look at the world,” Wally Funk said as she marveled at the views.
Before the flight, Wally Funk had said she was looking forward to performing somersaults and tumbles in microgravity.
In the 1960s, Wally Funk was one member of a group of women called the Mercury 13. They underwent the same screening tests as male astronauts, but never got to fly into space.
The capsule reached a maximum altitude of around 107km (351,210ft) before starting its descent, parachuting down to a soft touchdown in the desert.
On the way down, Jeff Bezos told mission control: “You have a very happy crew here up here, I want you to know.”
After landing, Mark Bezos, 53, said: “I am unbelievably good.”
Jeff Bezos recently resigned as chief executive of Amazon, the e-commerce giant he founded, in order to concentrate on his other ventures, including Blue Origin.
Mark Bezos, is a senior vice president at Robin Hood, a New York-based charity.
The fourth passenger, Oliver Daemen, is the son of financier Joes Daemen, who founded Dutch private equity firm Somerset Capital Partners. Oliver Daemen had originally secured a seat on the second flight, but was drafted in to replace the anonymous winner of a public auction.
This unnamed winner, who paid $28 million to join Jeff Bezos on New Shepard’s first crewed flight, had to pull out “due to scheduling conflicts”.
Oliver Daemen is to become the youngest person to fly to space when he joins Jeff Bezos on the first human flight by his space company on July 20.
The 18-year-old will fly in place of an anonymous $28 million winning bidder of a public auction.
The winner of the auction could not fly on the mission “due to scheduling conflicts”, Jeff Bezos’ space venture Blue Origin said.
Oliver Daemen is the son of Somerset Capital Partners CEO Joes Daemen.
Joes Daemen had secured a seat on the second flight but was moved up to the first when the winning bidder pulled out, Blue Origin said. He then chose to instead fly his son, who is a physics student.
He will join 82-year-old Wally Funk, who will become the oldest ever person in space. Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark will make up the rest of the passengers on the New Shepard rocket.
The previous winner of the auction has remained anonymous, even as the launch edged closer, and the nature of the “conflicts” which led to their withdrawal have not been disclosed.
Blue Origin has not said how much Oliver Daeman’s ticket cost.
It said the flight will fulfill a lifelong dream for the teenager, “who has been fascinated by space, the Moon and rockets since he was four”.
Blue Origin plans to launch its passengers more than 62 miles above the Earth’s surface, allowing them to experience microgravity.
The capsule will then return to Earth using parachutes on a trip expected to last about 10 minutes.
Jeff Bezos is one of the world’s richest people.
He created Blue Origin in 2000 and announced last month that he and his brother would embark on the flight – describing it as something he had wanted to do “all my life”.
Jeff Bezos is to step down as chief executive of Amazon, the e-commerce giant that he founded in his garage nearly 30 years ago.
The Amazon founder will become executive chairman, a move he said would give him “time and energy” to focus on his other ventures.
Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, will be replaced by Andy Jassy, who currently leads Amazon’s cloud computing business.
The change will take place in the second half of 2021, the company said.
In a letter to Amazon staff on February 2, Jeff Bezos said: “Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it’s consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it’s hard to put attention on anything else.”
“As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions.”
“I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring. I’m super passionate about the impact I think these organizations can have,” he added.
Jeff Bezos, 57, has led Amazon since its start as an online bookshop in 1994. The firm now employs 1.3 million people globally, and saw its already explosive growth skyrocket last year, as the pandemic prompted a surge in online shopping.
Amazon reported $386 billion in sales in 2020, up 38% from 2019. Profits almost doubled, rising to $21.3 billion.
In announcing the plans, Jeff Bezos said he would continue to focus on new products and early initiatives.
“When you look at our financial results, what you’re actually seeing are the long-run cumulative results of invention,” he said.
“Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition.”
The move comes as Jeff Bezos has taken on an increasingly public profile.
He has endured a public divorce, become a target for labor and inequality activists, and got involved in other businesses, such as space exploration firm Blue Origin and the Washington Post newspaper.
Amazon also faces increasing scrutiny from regulators, who have questioned its monopoly power. And its dominance in cloud computing is being increasingly challenged by other tech firms, such as Microsoft and Alphabet, parent company of Google and YouTube.
Jeff Bezos’s decision to hand over the day-to-day operation of the company came as a surprise. But investors appeared unfazed, with little change in the company’s share price in after-hours trade.
Andy Jassy, a Harvard graduate, has been with Amazon since 1997 and helped develop Amazon Web Services, which has long been seen as the profit engine of the company.
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