Setting a new milestone in his life journey, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos blasted off Blue Origin’s New Shepard flight on Tuesday from its Launch Site One in the West Texas desert in the United States.
Jeff Bezos was accompanied by brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and 18-year-old passenger Oliver Daemen. The mission set new milestones in human space history as Blue Origin became the first company in history to undertake a commercial launch that is privately funded and built spacecraft from a private launch range with astronauts on board.
The astronauts boarded the crew capsule 30 minutes before the launch and the hatch closed six minutes later. The successful launch and subsequent touchdown made Wally Funk, 82, the oldest person and Daeman the youngest to have flown in space.
It is interesting to note that the New Shepard, a fully autonomous spacecraft, didn’t have any Blue Origin staff astronauts during its maiden human spaceflight. Jeff Bezos thanked the entire Amazon team for the successful mission of Blue Origin.
