Blue
Origin's
New
Shepard
rocket
launches
carrying
passengers
Jeff
Bezos,
founder
of
Amazon
and
space
tourism
company
Blue
Origin,
brother
Mark
Bezos,
Oliver
Daemen
and
Wally
Funk,
from its
spaceport
near Van
Horn,
Texas,
Tuesday,
July 20,
2021.(Tony
Gutierrez/AP) |
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Oliver
Daemen,
from
left,
Jeff
Bezos,
founder
of
Amazon
and
space
tourism
company
Blue
Origin,
Wally
Funk and
Bezos'
brother
Mark
pose for
photos
in front
of the
Blue
Origin
New
Shepard
rocket,
derby,
after
their
launch
from the
spaceport
near Van
Horn,
Texas,
Tuesday,
July 20,
2021.
(AP
Photo/Tony
Gutierrez) |
|
Jeff
Bezos
blasts
into
space on
own
rocket:
'Best
day
ever!'
By
MARCIA
DUNN
apnews.com
VAN
HORN,
TX- Jeff
Bezos
blasted
into
space
Tuesday
on his
rocket
company’s
first
flight
with
people
on
board,
becoming
the
second
billionaire
in just
over a
week to
ride his
own
spacecraft.
The
Amazon
founder
was
accompanied
by a
hand-picked
group:
his
brother,
an
18-year-old
from the
Netherlands
and an
82-year-old
aviation
pioneer
from
Texas —
the
youngest
and
oldest
to ever
fly in
space.
“Best
day
ever!”
Bezos
said
when the
capsule
touched
down on
the
desert
floor in
remote
West
Texas
after
the
10-minute
flight.
Named
after
America’s
first
astronaut,
Blue
Origin’s
New
Shepard
rocket
soared
on the
52nd
anniversary
of the
Apollo
11 moon
landing,
a date
chosen
by Bezos
for its
historical
significance.
He held
fast to
it, even
as
Virgin
Galactic’s
Richard
Branson
pushed
up his
own
flight
from New
Mexico
in the
race for
space
tourist
dollars
and beat
him to
space by
nine
days.
Unlike
Branson’s
piloted
rocket
plane,
Bezos’
capsule
was
completely
automated
and
required
no
official
staff on
board
for the
up-and-down
flight.
Blue
Origin
reached
an
altitude
of about
66 miles
(106
kilometers),
more
than 10
miles
(16
kilometers)
higher
than
Branson’s
July 11
ride.
The
60-foot
(18-meter)
booster
accelerated
to Mach
3 or
three
times
the
speed of
sound to
get the
capsule
high
enough,
before
separating
and
landing
upright.
During
their
several
minutes
of
weightlessness,
video
from
inside
the
capsule
showed
the four
floating,
doing
somersaults,
tossing
Skittles
candies
and
throwing
balls,
with
lots of
cheering,
whooping
and
exclamations
of
“Wow!”
The
Bezos
brother
also
joined
their
palms to
display
a “HI
MOM”
greeting
written
on their
hands.
The
capsule
landed
under
parachutes,
with
Bezos
and his
guests
briefly
experiencing
nearly
six
times
the
force of
gravity,
or 6
G’s, on
the way
back.
Led
by
Bezos,
they
climbed
out of
the
capsule
after
touchdown
with
wide
grins,
embracing
parents,
partners
and
children,
then
popped
open
bottles
of
sparkling
wine,
spraying
one
another.
“My
expectations
were
high and
they
were
dramatically
exceeded,”
Bezos
said
later.
Their
flight
lasted
10
minutes
and 10
seconds
— five
minutes
shy of
Alan
Shepard’s
Freedom
7 flight
in 1961.
Shepard’s
daughters,
Laura
and
Julie,
were
introduced
at a
press
event a
few
hours
later.
Sharing
Bezos’
dream-come-true
adventure
was
Wally
Funk,
from the
Dallas
area,
one of
13
female
pilots
who went
through
the same
tests as
NASA’s
all-male
astronaut
corps in
the
early
1960s
but
never
made it
into
space.
“I’ve
been
waiting
a long
time to
finally
get it
up
there,”
Funk
said.
“I
want to
go again
— fast,”
she
added.
Joining
them on
the
ultimate
joyride
was the
company’s
first
paying
customer,
Oliver
Daemen,
a
last-minute
fill-in
for the
mystery
winner
of a $28
million
charity
auction
who
opted
for a
later
flight.
The
Dutch
teen’s
father
took
part in
the
auction,
and
agreed
on a
lower
undisclosed
price
last
week
when
Blue
Origin
offered
his son
the
vacated
seat.
“It
was so
amazing,”
Daemen
said.
“Let’s
hope
that
many,
many
more
people
can do
this.”
Four
hours
after
their
flight,
Bezos
drove
his crew
over to
see the
rocket
that
carried
them
safely
to
space.
“Can’t
believe
we did
it,”
Funk
said.
Among
the
items
brought
on the
flight:
A pair
of
aviator
Amelia
Earhart’s
goggles
and a
piece of
fabric
from the
original
Wright
Flyer.
“I
got
goose
bumps,”
said
Angel
Herrera
of El
Paso,
who
watched
the
launch
from
inside
Van Horn
High
School,
about 25
miles
(40
kilometers)
away.
“The
hair on
the back
of my
neck
stood
up, just
witnessing
history.”
“This
ride is
only for
the
wealthy,”
pizza
shop
owner
Jesus
Ramirez
said
after
watching
the
launch,
adding
that he
hoped
the
venture
would
attract
businesses
to the
town and
provide
opportunities
for
local
companies.
Blue
Origin —
founded
by Bezos
in 2000
in Kent,
Washington,
near
Amazon’s
Seattle
headquarters
— hasn’t
revealed
its
price
for a
ride to
space
but has
lined up
spots
for
other
auction
bidders.
Ticket
sales,
including
the
auction,
are
approaching
$100
million,
Bezos
said.
Two more
flights
are
planned
by
year’s
end.
The
recycled
rocket
and
capsule
used
Tuesday
flew on
the last
two
space
demos,
according
to
company
officials.
Virgin
Galactic
already
has more
than 600
reservations
at
$250,000
apiece.
Founded
by
Branson
in 2004,
the
company
has sent
crew
into
space
four
times
and
plans
two more
test
flights
from New
Mexico
before
launching
customers
next
year.
Blue
Origin’s
approach
was
slower
and more
deliberate.
After 15
successful
unoccupied
test
flights
to space
since
2015,
Bezos
finally
declared
it was
time to
put
people
on
board.
The
Federal
Aviation
Administration
agreed
last
week,
approving
the
commercial
space
license.
Bezos,
57, who
also
owns The
Washington
Post,
claimed
the
first
seat.
The next
went to
his
50-year-old
brother,
Mark
Bezos,
an
investor
and
volunteer
firefighter,
then
Funk and
Daemen.
They
spent
two days
together
in
training.
University
of
Chicago
space
historian
Jordan
Bimm
said the
passenger
makeup
is truly
remarkable.
Imagine
if the
head of
NASA
decided
he
wanted
to
launch
in 1961
instead
of
Shepard
on the
first
U.S.
spaceflight,
he said
in an
email.
“That
would
have
been
unthinkable!”
Bimm
said.
“”It
shows
just how
much the
idea of
who and
what
space is
for has
changed
in the
last 60
years.”
Bezos
stepped
down
this
month as
Amazon’s
CEO and
last
week
donated
$200
million
to
renovate
the
National
Air and
Space
Museum.
Fewer
than 600
people
have
reached
the edge
of space
or
beyond.
Until
Tuesday,
the
youngest
was
25-year-old
Soviet
cosmonaut
Gherman
Titov
and the
oldest
at 77
was
Mercury-turned-shuttle
astronaut
John
Glenn.
Both
Bezos
and
Branson
want to
drastically
increase
those
overall
numbers,
as does
SpaceX’s
Elon
Musk,
who’s
skipping
brief
space
hops and
sending
his
private
clients
straight
to orbit
for tens
of
millions
apiece,
with the
first
flight
coming
up in
September.
“We
are
going to
build a
road to
space so
our kids
and
their
kids can
build
the
future,”
Bezos
said.
“We need
to do
that to
solve
the
problems
on
Earth.”
Despite
appearances,
Bezos
and
Branson
insist
they
weren’t
trying
to outdo
each
other by
strapping
in
themselves.
Bezos
noted
this
week
that
only one
person
can lay
claim to
being
first in
space:
Soviet
cosmonaut
Yuri
Gagarin,
who
rocketed
into
orbit on
April
12,
1961.
Branson
sent a
congratulatory
tweet:
“Impressive!
Very
best to
all the
crew
from me
and all
the
team” at
Virgin
Galactic.
Blue
Origin
is
working
on a
massive
rocket,
New
Glenn,
to put
payloads
and
people
into
orbit
from
Cape
Canaveral,
Florida.
The
company
also
wants to
put
astronauts
back on
the moon
with its
proposed
lunar
lander
Blue
Moon;
it’s
challenging
NASA’s
sole
contract
award to
SpaceX.
Included
in the
many
people
that
Bezos
thanked
Tuesday
was
“every
Amazon
employee
and
every
Amazon
customer.
Because
you guys
paid for
all
this.”
Bezos
has said
he
finances
the
rocket
company
by
selling
$1
billion
in
Amazon
stock
each
year.
___
AP
reporters
Sean
Murphy
in Van
Horn and
Candice
Choi in
New York
contributed
to this
report.
___
The
Associated
Press
Health
and
Science
Department
receives
support
from the
Howard
Hughes
Medical
Institute’s
Department
of
Science
Education.
The AP
is
solely
responsible
for all
content.
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