"Best Day Ever": Jeff Bezos Returns From the Stars in His Pilotless Rocket Ship the New Shephard

"Best Day Ever": Jeff Bezos Returns From the Stars in His Pilotless Rocket Ship the New Shephard

  • Jeff Bezos is not the first billionaire to launch himself into space but his 10 minutes, 10-second flight was historic
  • Onboard the New Shephard alongside Bezos was his brother Mark Bezos, an 18-year-old student, Oliver Daemen, and an 82-year-old Wally Funk, a pioneer of the space race
  • Bezos said that this was the "best day ever" and that the expectations of his journey to the final frontier had been wildly exceeded

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Billionaire founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has made history as the second billionaire to launch himself into space. The unique shaped pilotless rocket ship, New Shephard, blasted off from a private launch site near Van Horn, Texas.

Jeff Bezos, Space, Rocket Ship, New Shephard
Jeff Bezos has made history by taking the youngest and oldest people into space. Photo credit: @JesseCohenInv , @TransSalamander
Source: Twitter

When Bezos landed his first words were "best day ever" and that his expectations were exceeded by the experience.

Bezos was accompanied by his brother Mark Bezos, an 18-year-old student, Oliver Daemen, and an 82-year-old Wally Funk, a pioneer of the space race according to BBC.

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In a post-flight interview, Bezos thanked all Amazon employees and customers from the bottom of his heart because they paid for his historic flight.

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The New Shephard has the largest windows of any spaceship and there are no pilots on board to date and took the passengers to the edge of space. The spaceship is completely autonomous.

The trip lasted 10 minutes, 10 seconds and the four passengers parachuted back down to mother earth after the short trip.

The ship was built by Bezos' company Blue Origin. The flight was historic in that it features the youngest and oldest people to ever travel to space, Wally at 82 and Oliver at 18 according to The Guardian.

Wally Funk and the space race

In the 1960s Wally Funk was a member of an all-female group called Mercury 13 who were participating in training to go into space.

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They took part in all the tests the male pilots did but unfortunately did not get to explore the final frontier.

Bezos is a huge fan of Wally and said that she was better than the men back in the 1960s and that she could still outrun all of them.

Richard Branson shares breathtaking videos of his space adventure

Earlier, Briefly News reported that billionaire Richard Branson took a trip to space and he has shared some breathtaking videos of his galactic adventure.

The video he uploaded to Facebook shows how the Virgin Galactic’s spaceship VSS Unity was launched from another plane at high altitude.

Branson and his fellow passengers are shown holding on tight as the space place shoots off in space.

Once they reach space they begin playing around, enjoying the experience of being weightless. The video shows amazing views of the earth from the space plane's windows.

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Source: Briefly News

Authors:
Stefan Mack avatar

Stefan Mack (Editor) Stefan Mack is an English and history teacher who has broadened his horizons with journalism. He enjoys experiencing the human condition through the world's media. Stefan keeps Briefly News' readers entertained during the weekend. He graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2010 with a Bachelor of Education (BEd), majoring in History and English. Stefan has been writing for Briefly News for a number of years and has covered mainstream to human interest articles.

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