“I want to go on this flight because it's the thing I've wanted to do all my life.”
Founder of Blue Origin Jeff Bezos on being a passenger on his company's first human flight to space.
Published on
jun 7, 2021
- Bezos, founder of Amazon, is the richest person on the planet.
- Bezo's also founded Blue Origin in 2000 - the mission: to enable "a future where millions of people are living and working in space to benefit Earth" and creating "partially and fully reusable launch vehicles," with safety ("Blue Origin's Top Mission") and low cost in mind.
- Blue Origin began flight testing their rocket, New Shepard, in 2012. After more than a dozen successful test missions, they are now ready to send New Shepard to space with humans aboard, launching from their West Texas facility.
- Bezos and his brother Mark Bezos will be on this flight, as well as the winner of Blue Origin's auction. "...when he asked me to go along, I was just awestruck... What a remarkable opportunity, not only to have this adventure but to be able to do it with my best friend," Mark said of their upcoming journey.
- Why It Matters: "You see the earth from space and [it] changes you... ," Bezos said in an Instagram video he shared this morning. This flight marks Blue Origin's first flight to space with passengers aboard and is scheduled to launch on July 20th, "the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing," CBS reports. This highlights the private "space race" - where private companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic (watch this video) - joist for private space travel and tourism.