July 21, 2021 08:19
Billionaire Jeff Bezos was back on earth safely Tuesday after a 10-minute suborbital flight aboard Blue Origin s New Shepard spacecraft. Best day ever, Bezos said after the capsule touched down near Van Horn, Texas.
The spacecraft is named after Alan Shepard, the first American launched into space. The world s richest man blasted off Tuesday from a remote desert launch site in Texas, as he became the second billionaire to self-fund a trip to space this month.
The fully automated rocket reached an altitude of about 106 km after reaching Mach 3. Once at altitude, the booster separated from the capsule and returned to earth landing upright near the launch site. The crew was able to experience weightlessness for 3 to 4 minutes before a parachute landing back on earth
What you need to know about Wally Funk, 82-year-old aviator
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Blue Origin
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took a quick vacation from being the wealthiest man on Earth on Tuesday, opting to briefly become the wealthiest man in space. For roughly 10 minutes, Bezos, his brother Mark, 82-year-old American aviator Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk, and 18-year-old Dutch student Oliver Daeman were floating about 65 miles above the Earth.
The groundbreaking spacecraft launch was the first human mission for Bezos’ aerospace manufacturing company, Blue Origin. The historic launch spawned an official Twitter news page, much joy and wonder, and a good deal of criticism about Bezos passion for private space travel amid a worsening climate crisis and historic wealth inequality on Earth.
Jeff Bezos goes into space. Day Two: Blastoff
It was the day Mary Wallace (Wally) went to Funk space.
Yes, yes, yes, Blue Origin and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was also in the capsule, along with 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, the first paying customer. And Jeff’s brother, who he called “the funniest man in space,” made a compliment to a large number of experienced space journalists in West Texas today. (It is their evidence
But while sending the world’s richest man into space a striking gambit, and a milestone in the advent of commercial space tourism, Wally Funk is sui generis. This week, in 1960, in a story that is being told and retrieved in a thousand media outlets, in 1960, Funk was part of the original Mercury 13, a team trained to be the first female astronauts. But NASA would not sign the program, and for the past 60 years, Funk, an expert pilot and a responsible aircraft safety researcher, has become obsessed with the denied spacecraft seat. In 2010, he signed up for