Jeff Bezos (57) is a billionaire and has become the first American Space tourist. He is the owner of Amazon. His Blue Origin ship took off from a desert site in West Texas, went to the edge of space, and returned. The voyage lasted just over 10 minutes, and he scripted history. It was an incident-free journey and paved the road to space tourism. He had three other astronauts with him, and they described the trip as “amazing.” Bezos said: “My expectations were high, and they were dramatically exceeded.” Space has, so far, been a domain reserved for scientists and researchers.
The International Space Station is a laboratory where teams of experts try to understand the behavior of living beings in conditions that prevail in space. That knowledge helps others to plan journeys to the Moon and Mars.
This galactic trip happened nine days after Sir Richard Branson became the first space tourist from Britain. However, there is a difference. Branson got to space first, but Bezos flew higher. The former’s Virgin Galactic reached 53 miles while the latter reached 62 miles. Their achievements open up the doors to another unique Travel destination for those who love something out of this world.
Bezos had three others with him on his trip to space
It was a team of four for Jeff Bezos.
They were his brother Mark Bezos (53), pioneering female aviator Wally Funk (82), and Oliver Daemen (18). Funk and Daemen became the oldest and youngest people to reach space. Funk was a member of the so-called Mercury 13 group of women trained to become NASA astronauts. That was in the early 1960s, but she could not make it because she was a woman.
The 18-year-old Daemen was Blue Origin's first paying customer. He is a student in the Netherlands. Bezos chose the date with care. The date of his space flight was July 20. It coincided with the date when the first humans walked on the moon. The year was 1969, and the men were Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. Incidentally, the team of Sir Richard Branson also had four members, and one of them was a woman.
Bezos said zero-G was a "big surprise" to him because "it felt so normal." A media report of March mentioned that hotels in outer space catering to an elite clientele could become a reality by 2027.
Once in space, Bezos and his team experienced weightlessness
Members of the Bezos family and employees of Blue Origin witnessed the launch in the early hours. There were also some spectators along the highway. Mirror UK says the flight did not enter orbit, but the event was a milestone for Bezos. Once in space, he and his passengers freed the belts and floated around the capsule. The few minutes of weightlessness was a new experience for them. The capsule returned to Earth under parachutes and made a soft landing in the Texas desert.
Bezos took another step in the race to establish Blue Origin in the space tourism sector with this flight. Swiss investment bank UBS estimates the sector could look at reaching $3 billion annually in a decade. Blue Origin has plans for some more passenger flights later this year. There is a demand evident from the number of people from different countries who participated in an auction, to become the first paying customer.
82-year-old aviator Wally Funk becomes the oldest-ever person to fly in space
According to the BBC, Wally Funk trained to be an astronaut in the 1960s. Unfortunately, the authorities overlooked her for a space flight because she was a woman. Since then, she has been trying to reach space, and Jeff Bezos gave her the opportunity.
She was one of the quartets who traveled with him to the edge of space in the Blue Origin. In 2010, she paid $200,000 for a ticket on Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. However, Jeff Bezos invited her as an “honored guest" on his flight to the edge of space.
