With their successful launch, Blue Origin is set to start bringing paying customers into space from as early as September this year
THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED ON JULY 12, 2021, AND UPDATED ON JULY 21, 2021.
On July 20, Jeff Bezos finally fulfilled a longtime dream of his of going to space when he blasted off on a reusable rocket built by his firm Blue Origin as part of a crew of four people.
Related: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Will Travel to Space on a Blue Origin Flight
The Amazon founder, who stepped away from his role as chief executive of Amazon two weeks ago, travelled over 60 miles above Earth in a trip that lasted 10 minutes.
He got to experience weightlessness for about three minutes with his crew members which consisted of his brother, Mark Bezos, pilot Wally Funk, the oldest person to fly into space, and Oliver Daemen, an 18-year old whose father purchased a ticket for him.
The group then returned to earth safely where the crew popped a bottle of champagne and celebrated their success.
"Oh my God," exclaimed Bezos during the conference. "My expectations were high, and they were dramatically exceeded."
Bezos' flight to space, however, is more than just a joyride. In fact, the billionaire has already announced that Blue Origin has two passenger launches scheduled for 2021 with the first one as early as September. However, they have yet to release information on pricing.
Bezos' flight comes days after billionaire Richard Branson launched himself into space on his Virgin Galactic space plane with the intent to make space tourism a real thing.
True enough, many billionaires have been pumping in billions of dollars to try to get themselves and more people into space.
Find out the other billionaires who are vying to get into space.
Related: Jeff Bezos to Hand Over Amazon CEO Reins to His Successor on July 5