Amazon founder Jeff Bezos who is currently the world’s richest person, returned to Earth after an 11-minute journey in space. Bezos was accompanied by 3 more passengers. Hi co-passengers included his brother Mark, 82-year-old Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Damon. To go to space with Bezos, an unknown person had made a bid of $28 million. However,he could not go on this trip and Oliver had gone in his place by buying ticket from him.
After the capsule landed on Earth, Blue Origin said, “Congratulations to Team Blue Past and everyone on reaching at this historic moment in spaceflight history.The first astronaut crew has written its name in the history books of space. Many people will now pass through the door he has opened. This is indeed a historic day.”
A week before this, on July 11, British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Space Ship (VSS) Unity space plane flight was successful. Branson and his crew went to a height of 85 km, which is not considered as space boundary by many countries. However, Bezos crossed the 100 km mark or Karman line, which is internationally recognized as space boundary.
Bezos chose the same day on which Armstrong landed on moon
According to reports, Bezos has chosen this day to go to space because Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin reached the Moon exactly 52 years ago in 1969 through the Apollo 11 spaceship. Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company Blue Origin said on Sunday that it is fully prepared for its first human spaceflight.
Also read: Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Stepping Down As CEO; Andy Jassy Will Take His Position
The Mission:
The rocket ship used by Bezos and his team was autonomous, meaning it did not need a pilot. Its capsule had 6 seats, but only 4 of those were filled. So far, 15 flights of this rocket named New Shepherd have been successful. However, this was the first manned launch.
Bezos’ flight was an 11-minute suborbital flight, that is, it did not go into Earth’s orbit. The New Shepard rocket of Bezos’s Blue Origin company took off from the desert of West Texas. For this, all the passengers got on-board 45 minutes before the launch.
The crew trained for 48 hours for this mission.The employees also completed 2 days training of 8-8 hours. This training will also be mandatory for all the customers who have purchased the ticket.
After a flight of about 3 minutes, capsule separated from Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and proceeded into space.
During this, passengers felt weightlessness. With this the capsule began to return to the ground. After a flight of 11 minutes, the capsule landed in the desert with the help of parachutes. During this the rocket also returned to Earth.
Cost of the mission:
According to a report in Daily Mail, the cost of this 10-minute journey of Bezos was $5.5 billion i.e. at least 40 thousand crore rupees. 4 thousand crore rupees have been spent on this every minute. Jeff was accompanied by his brother Mark and aviation expert Volley Funk on this flight. Apart from these three, tickets were auctioned for the fourth seat.