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Jeff Bezos Will Fly Aboard Blue Origin’s First Human Trip to Space

Mr. Bezos and his brother, Mark, will be on board when his rocket company launches its first human spaceflight next month, shortly after he steps down as chief executive of Amazon.

By Derrick Bryson Taylor and Kenneth Chang

In the battle of billionaires with rocket companies, Jeff Bezos will finally beat Elon Musk.

Mr. Bezos, the founder of Amazon, said on Monday that he would take a trip to space next month when Blue Origin , the rocket company he founded more than two decades ago, conducts its first human spaceflight.

“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space,” Mr. Bezos, 57, said on Instagram . He said his brother Mark would join him on the flight, allowing him to embark on “the greatest adventure, with my best friend.”

Mr. Bezos made the announcement in the middle of a busy year for human spaceflight . Blue Origin’s biggest competitors in private rocketry, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, have both announced a number of trips to carry a variety of individuals on launches or flights high above the planet, but neither as yet plans a passenger of such a high profile.

Mr. Bezos predicted that he would be a new man after his journey to space : “It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity,” he said. “It’s one earth. I want to go on this flight because it’s the thing I’ve wanted to do all my life.”

The trip may bring some renewed attention to Blue Origin, which has taken a slower approach to the development of its vehicles than the other companies, and recently lost out to Mr. Musk’s company in a bid to build the next lander that would carry NASA astronauts back to the moon.

SpaceX has a couple of missions in the next 12 months that are to take private citizens to orbit . One is scheduled to launch in September and will carry Jared Isaacman, the billionaire founder of Shift4 Payments, and three other amateur astronauts , on a trip to orbit. A second, booked by the company Axiom Space, will carry three wealthy individuals and an astronaut working for the company to the International Space Station. Mr. Musk has said he would eventually want to go to Mars, but he has not announced any plans to go to space himself in the near future.

Richard Branson, another billionaire who founded Virgin Galactic, in 2004, has been anticipating for more than a decade a ride on Virgin’s long-delayed SpaceShipTwo suborbital space plane, which is a competitor of New Shepard. The company completed its latest test flight last mont h, and Mr. Branson may finally get his wish later this year.

Blue Origin’s achievements lag far behind those of SpaceX, Mr. Musk’s rocket company. SpaceX has been regularly launching its Falcon 9 rockets to orbit for more than a decade including taking NASA cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station. Axiom Space last week announced three additional flights to orbit using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. SpaceX is also planning to fly Yusaku Maezwa , a billionaire who founded the online clothing company ZOZO in Japan, on a trip around the moon in its next-generation Starship spacecraft .

In April, SpaceX beat out Blue Origin and another company, Dynetics, to snag a NASA contract to build the lander that is to take astronauts back to the moon in a few years. ( Both Blue Origin and Dynetics have protested the award. )

Blue Origin, by contrast, has so far only conducted a series of 15 uncrewed test fights of its much smaller New Shepard vehicle. New Shepard is designed to take six people on short suborbital flights — rising above the 62-miles altitude generally regarded as the edge of space but then immediately coming back down instead of accelerating to the high velocities needed to enter orbit around Earth.

While New Shepard has yet to carry any passengers, it has been paid to fly science experiments for NASA and private scientists during test flights of the New Shepard spacecraft.

Mr. Bezos’ company announced last month that it was finally ready to put people on board for its next test flight, the 16th, on July 20, the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Blue Origin has yet to say how much tickets on Blue Origin will cost, but it is auctioning one seat on the July 20 flight. Bidding has reached $2.8 million with nearly 6,000 participants from 143 countries, the company said.

While Jeff Bezos, as founder of Amazon and one of the richest people in the world, has long been in the public spotlight, his younger brother Mark, 50, has lived a more private life. He is a co-founder and general partner at HighPost Capital, a private equity firm. Mark Bezos previously worked as head of communications at the Robin Hood Foundation, a charity that aids anti-poverty efforts in New York City.

In 2011, Mark Bezos spoke at a TED conference about his experiences as a volunteer firefighter in Scarsdale, N.Y. He recalled that the first volunteer who arrived at a house fire was assigned to retrieve the homeowner’s dogs.

“The dog!” Mark Bezos said during the talk. “I was stunned with jealousy. Here was some lawyer or money manager who, for the rest of his life, gets to tell people that he went into a burning building to save a living creature, just because he beat me by five seconds.

As the second volunteer at the site, he was told to go get a pair of shoes from the house. A few weeks later, the homeowner wrote to thank the firefighters for their efforts, and in particular, she noted that someone had even gotten her a pair of shoes.

“In both my vocation at Robin Hood and my avocation as a volunteer firefighter,” Mark Bezos said. “I am witness to acts of generosity and kindness on a monumental scale, but I’m also witness to acts of grace and courage on an individual basis. And you know what I’ve learned? They all matter.”

At a joint appearance by the brothers in 2017 at Summit, a leadership conference , a, Jeff Bezos said people sometimes mistakenly think he was the one who spoke at TED. “Every once in a while, somebody will stop me and say, ‘I love your TED Talk about being a firefighter, and small acts of kindness,’ said Jeff Bezos who added he usually corrects them that it was actually Mark. “But if I’m in a hurry, I just say thank you,” Jeff Bezos said.

Mark Bezos then joked, “But if any of you do get confused, I’m the one with the smaller bank account, to your left.”

Last year, Mark Bezos listed his 10,000-square foot Scarsdale home and four-acre property for sale asking for $11 million.

The Blue Origin tourist rocket that the brothers will fly on is named after Alan Shepard, the first American to go to space, in 1961.

The launch next month will occur at Blue Origin’s site in West Texas. At about 47 miles, or 250,000 feet, the capsule carrying the passengers will separate from its booster. The astronauts will then get to unbuckle and experience weightlessness for nearly three minutes before the capsule returns to Earth. Because the capsule is fully pressurized, passengers will not be required to wear spacesuits or helmets.

Mr. Bezos said in February that he would step down as chief executive of Amazon on July 5 . Andy Jassy, the chief of Amazon’s cloud computing division, will become chief executive, while Mr. Bezos will become executive chairman. Mr. Bezos said he wanted to put more time and energy into his other passions, including Blue Origin.

Mr. Bezos predicts that in the decades ahead, millions of people will live and work in space.

Blue Origin’s business includes building rocket engines, which it sells to another rocket company, United Launch Alliance, and which it plans to use for its larger orbital rocket, New Glenn. But Blue Origin lost out to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance in a competition to launch satellites for the Department of Defense, and the maiden launch of New Glenn has been delayed to late next year. However, its rocket engines are to help U.L.A. launch a robotic moon lander for NASA as early as the end of this year, the first spacecraft the agency has sent to the moon’s surface since 1972.

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

Derrick Bryson Taylor is a general assignment reporter. He previously worked at The New York Post's PageSix.com and Essence magazine. More about Derrick Bryson Taylor

Kenneth Chang has been at The Times since 2000, writing about physics, geology, chemistry, and the planets. Before becoming a science writer, he was a graduate student whose research involved the control of chaos. More about Kenneth Chang

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Jeff Bezos And Blue Origin Travel Deeper Into Space Than Richard Branson

Scott Neuman

A mural of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos adorns the side of a building in Van Horn, Texas, over the weekend. Bezos launched into space Tuesday morning from Blue Origin's facilities in the town. Sean Murphy/AP hide caption

A mural of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos adorns the side of a building in Van Horn, Texas, over the weekend. Bezos launched into space Tuesday morning from Blue Origin's facilities in the town.

Jeff Bezos has become the second billionaire this month to reach the edge of space, and he did so aboard a rocket built by a company he launched.

Liftoff! Jeff Bezos And 3 Crewmates Travel To Space And Back In Under 15 Minutes

Besides Bezos, the crew included brother Mark Bezos (left), 18-year-old physics student Oliver Daemen and 82-year-old pioneering female aviator Wally Funk. Blue Origin hide caption

Besides Bezos, the crew included brother Mark Bezos (left), 18-year-old physics student Oliver Daemen and 82-year-old pioneering female aviator Wally Funk.

The founder of Amazon, who stepped down as CEO this month, lifted off early Tuesday with three crewmates on the maiden flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard launch vehicle.

Riding with Bezos on the planned 11-minute flight were brother Mark Bezos as well as the oldest and youngest people ever to fly into space – 82-year-old pioneering female aviator Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen , 18, a physics student. Daemen, whose seat was paid for by his father, Joes Daemen , CEO of Somerset Capital Partners, was put on the crew after the winner of an anonymous $28 million auction for the flight had to postpone due to a scheduling conflict.

The crew took off on a special anniversary

New Shepard lifted off from the company's facilities in Van Horn, Texas , shortly after 9 a.m. ET.

The date of July 20 for the inaugural flight is significant – it's the same day in 1969 that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard Apollo 11's Eagle became the first humans to land on the moon.

Bragging rights over Branson

New Shepard's suborbital flight was designed to take the crew past the Kármán line , the internationally recognized boundary of space, at nearly 330,000 feet, or roughly 62 miles above the Earth. That will give Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin — which he founded in 2000 — bragging rights over Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson, whose flight this month aboard SpaceShipTwo hit a peak altitude of around 282,000 feet, surpassing NASA's designated Earth-space boundary of 50 miles, but falling well short of the Kármán line.

Richard Branson Has Completed A Historic Trip To The Edge Of Space On Virgin Galactic

Blue origin vs. virgin galactic.

Besides the altitude, the New Shepard launch had some other key differences with Branson's July 11 flight: Instead of lifting off from a pad, the Virgin Galactic vehicle was dropped from under a specially designed aircraft at about 50,000 feet before firing its ascent engines. The Virgin Galactic spacecraft also glided back to Earth for a space shuttle-like runway landing.

By contrast, the 60-foot tall New Shepard launched like a conventional rocket, and its capsule was designed to return home dangling from three parachutes in a manner similar to NASA's human spaceflights of the 1960s and '70s. However, its booster returned to the pad for a soft touchdown so that it can be reused later. And the capsule, with Bezos and his crewmates aboard, came back to the high plains of Texas using braking rockets, instead of splashing down at sea.

New Shepard, which is fully autonomous, is named after Alan Shepard, who in 1961 became the first American into space.

Elon Musk has hasn't made it to space, but his company has

With Bezos' flight complete, Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX, is left as the odd man out in the billionaire space race. Even so, Musk's SpaceX, which has flown astronauts to the International Space Station, is a heavyweight in the commercial space business compared with either Virgin Galactic or Blue Origin.

Branson and Bezos are hoping to tap into the potentially lucrative market for space tourism, while Musk is more focused on working with NASA, gaining market share in the satellite launch industry, and on his dream to send humans to Mars.

Even so, Musk turned up to watch Branson's flight and has reportedly put down a $10,000 deposit to reserve a seat to fly on a future Virgin Galactic flight, where tickets are thought to go for $250,000 a pop, but it's unknown if or when he will buckle in and blast off.

Jeff Bezos launches new era of space travel with Blue Origin ride

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos achieves his dream of flying to the edge of space. His company, Blue Origin, says it’s now open for space tourism.

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The New Shepard rocket rumbled to life early Tuesday, catapulting Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and three others to the edge of space and allowing the world’s richest person to achieve a childhood dream.

Back on Earth, spaceflight enthusiasts saw the brief voyage as the realization of decades of promise — the beginning of a new era for space tourism.

“Space tourism is finally here,” said Alan Ladwig, author of the book “See You in Orbit? Our Dream of Spaceflight.” “It’s still going to be expensive, it’s still not going to be something everybody can do right away, but it’s a first step.”

Bezos’ suborbital flight — his company Blue Origin’s first crewed launch — came a little over a week after British billionaire Richard Branson along with five others boarded a space plane built by his Virgin Galactic firm and flew to the edge of space and back, making it there ahead of Bezos, who had announced his plans earlier. Virgin Galactic plans to complete two more test flights before it begins flying paying customers to space next year.

Although Blue Origin flew its first paying customer on Tuesday’s flight — 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, the son of a Dutch private equity executive and now the youngest person to go to space — it has yet to announce seat prices or additional details about its commercial operations. During a livestream of Tuesday’s launch, Ariane Cornell, Blue Origin’s director of astronaut sales, repeatedly encouraged interested customers to email the company.

Already the company is approaching $100 million in private sales, Bezos told an assembled audience of guests, employees and reporters after the launch.

An auction for a seat on Tuesday’s flight ended with a winning bid of $28 million , but the ticket holder, whose identity has not been disclosed, postponed the trip, citing scheduling conflicts, according to Blue Origin. They will fly on a future mission. (Proceeds from the auction for a spot on Tuesday’s launch went to the Club for the Future foundation, which was founded by Blue Origin and is aimed at promoting science, technology, engineering and math careers. From those proceeds, 19 nonprofit organizations were selected to receive $1-million grants.)

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But suborbital flights aren’t the company’s only goal; Blue Origin plans to build a family of larger rockets that could hoist cargo, satellites and people to orbit and beyond, eventually creating an ecosystem to allow millions of people to live and work in space. Bezos has previously suggested building cylindrical habitats with artificial gravity known as O’Neill colonies, after the physicist Gerard K. O’Neill, who pioneered the idea.

“Big things start small,” Bezos said Tuesday. “We’re going to build a road to space so that our kids and their kids can build the future.”

The seeming arrival of the era of suborbital space tourism after years of hype has fueled public debate around the increasing commercialization of space and the role that billionaires play in the industry.

After his flight, Bezos thanked Amazon employees and customers, saying, “You guys paid for all this.” He has previously said he has sold about $1 billion of Amazon stock a year to fund Blue Origin .

The high current price tag for spaceflight — Virgin Galactic charges as much as $250,000 per ticket — reflects the pattern of technological advancements in other fields, such as cellphones and air travel, said Timiebi Aganaba, an assistant professor at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society.

“If we look back at history ... it’s always started off with the people with the most resources that take the first risk,” she said. “We should celebrate the innovations that have happened and continue the conversations about how we can bring society along so that it’s not just a joyride for the rich.”

Winning auction bid to fly in space with Jeff Bezos: $28 million

Blue Origin did not disclose the winner’s name following the live online auction, but their identity will be revealed soon.

June 12, 2021

The market for commercial suborbital spaceflight could include not just wealthy individuals but also research entities, governments and even NASA, said Laura Forczyk, owner of space consulting firm Astralytical. NASA is already a major customer for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which ferries supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station.

“What we’re seeing now is the emergence,” she said. “We do not know yet how quickly this industry is going to mature.”

Alan Stern, a planetary scientist and associate vice president of the Southwest Research Institute’s space science and engineering division, plans to launch aboard Virgin Galactic’s space plane as soon as next year to conduct experiments in suborbital space. His flight will be paid for by NASA and the Southwest Research Institute.

Unlike other fields of research in which scientists studying environments such as a volcano or the ocean can perform their experiments in person, space researchers have had to automate their experiments so that they can be carried out remotely. That costs money and time and sometimes results in failures, said Stern, who has also spoken with Blue Origin about his interest in conducting experiments aboard New Shepard. Stern previously served as a consultant for Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic.

Regular and relatively inexpensive suborbital spaceflights would mean he could complete research projects and advance the field more rapidly.

He described Tuesday’s launch as a “watershed moment,” not because Bezos flew to suborbital space but because it indicated that there would be two commercial suborbital spaceflight companies ready for business. The competition could “start returning results for research for education and, frankly, just flying a greater cross section of people.”

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and capsule system launched shortly after 6 a.m. Pacific time from the company’s launchpad about 30 minutes north of Van Horn, Texas. The company had already completed a series of uncrewed flight tests.

Before the launch, about 100 reporters were gathered at the press site. Inns and hotels in the small town of Van Horn were sold out.

“My expectations were high, and they were dramatically exceeded,” Bezos said after his return.

He said the most profound part of the trip was seeing Earth’s atmosphere and how delicate it is — an epiphany experienced by many astronauts and known as the overview effect .

“As we move about the planet, we damage it,” Bezos said. “It’s one thing to recognize that intellectually; it’s another thing to see it with your own eyes how fragile it is.”

The New Shepard rocket booster separated from the crew capsule about two minutes after liftoff and returned to Earth minutes ahead of the capsule. Its return created a sonic boom that could be heard across the Guadalupe Mountains.

The capsule held Bezos, his brother Mark, customer Daemen and aviation pioneer Wally Funk. Audio from the launch livestream captured the capsule’s occupants cheering and reminding one another to look out the windows. They experienced about four minutes of weightlessness and were able to move about the capsule before strapping back into their seats for the return to the west Texas desert.

The craft landed back on Earth about 10 minutes after liftoff, buoyed by a trio of parachutes.

Bezos gave a thumbs up from his seat in the capsule shortly after landing. The crew emerged from the craft minutes later and was greeted by loved ones as well as a camera crew. To celebrate, they popped bottles of Champagne.

Back at the press site, about two miles from the launch tower, Blue Origin employees cried and cheered as the capsule’s parachutes deployed and when they saw Funk — at age 82, the oldest person to go to space — emerge from the capsule, arms outstretched in triumph.

Funk was part of a privately funded program called the First Lady Astronaut Trainees, also known as the Mercury 13, a group of U.S. female pilots who underwent the same physiological and psychological screening tests as NASA’s original Project Mercury astronauts but never went to space.

“I’ve been waiting a long time,” she said after the launch. “I want to go again.”

Mendez reported from Van Horn and Masunaga from Los Angeles.

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Samantha Masunaga is a business reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She’s worked at the paper since 2014.

Andrew Mendez is a rising senior at the University of Nevada, Reno, double majoring in journalism and Spanish literature. He joined The Times over summer 2021 as a Business reporting intern through his school’s Reynolds Journalism Institute, working from Los Angeles.

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Jeff Bezos is now devoting his time to building multi-billion dollar rockets. Here's how his space company, Blue Origin, hopes to colonize the solar system.

• Jeff Bezos is focusing more on his space firm, Blue Origin, now he's stepped down as Amazon CEO.
• Blue Origin, founded by Bezos in 2000, aims to transform space travel and colonize the solar system.
• The company's first human mission flew Bezos and three crewmates to space on July 20.

Just a month after leaving Amazon, Bezos flew into space onboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket.

It's a sign that, having left Amazon, Bezos is dedicating more time to Blue Origin, the space company he founded in 2000. The company's aim is to transform space travel.

In a letter to Amazon employees in February, Bezos said that as Amazon's executive chairman he would "stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus" on projects such as Blue Origin, the Washington Post, his Day 1 Fund, and the Bezos Earth Fund.

Bezos will therefore be more involved in Blue Origin going forward. The company wants to continue to build more rockets and engines to launch people, and other payloads, beyond Earth's orbit, and to ultimately colonize the solar system.

"We're committed to building a road to space so our children can build the future," the company says on its website .

What is Blue Origin?

Blue Origin is an American aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight company headquartered in Kent, Washington. It's owned by Bezos and is currently headed by CEO Bob Smith. 

Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000, and says it's his 'most important work'

Bezos, the world's second-richest person, founded Blue Origin in September 2000, with the goal of making space travel cheap, frequent, and more accessible, through reusable launch systems.

Bezos said in a 2018 interview with Axel Springer that the spaceflight company was his "most important work," — more important than Amazon. 

"I'm pursuing this work because I believe if we don't, we will eventually end up with a civilization of stasis, which I find very demoralizing," he said.

The billionaire's passion for his space-travel company stems from his childhood. Insider's Dave Mosher reported in 2018 that Bezos spent his childhood summers on his grandparents' large ranch in South Texas learning about machinery. He also went to the local library to read science fiction novels about space exploration.

Blue Origin's motto is "Gradatim Ferociter," Latin for "step by step, ferociously."

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Bezos often uses the hashtag in his Instagram posts about the firm.

What Blue Origin will do next

In July's flight, Bezos flew to the edge of space with three crewmates : his brother Mark; 82-year-old aviator Wally Funk; and 18-year-old Oliver Daeman from the Netherlands. The 11-minute flight was Blue Origin's first crewed mission, and it traveled 62 miles above the Earth's surface.

Blue Origin has a host of projects in the pipeline for Bezos to get stuck into.

NASA greenlighted Blue Origin in December for future Earth observation missions, planetary expeditions, and satellite launches with its New Glenn rocket, taking the space company one step closer to the stars.

In May, Blue Origin was awarded $1 billion from NASA  to produce initial designs for a human-landing system for the Artemis 3 mission, which aims to land humans on the moon in 2024. 

Blue Origin is competing against Elon Musk's SpaceX and Alabama-based Dynetics to land NASA astronauts on the moon in 2024. Bezos said in an Instagram post in December the company could possibly take the first woman there, too.

Read more: Meet the Washington Post executive working with Jeff Bezos to turbocharge the media titan's IT system

The aerospace firm was also among 17 US companies to be picked by NASA in November to develop new tech for space missions to "the moon and beyond." The selected companies will get access to NASA's testing facilities and expertise, which it valued at about $15.5 million.

The rockets in Blue Origin's pipeline

Bezos is pouring billions into the design, building, and launching of Blue Origin's orbital and suborbital space vehicles. 

The company's New Shepard suborbital rocket, named after Alan Shepard, who was the first American to go into space, ultimately aims to offer a 100-kilometer (62-mile) journey above Earth's surface that lasts 11 minutes.

The most recent successful flight of New Shepard was on January 14, when it carried a crash-test dummy named "Mannequin Skywalker" into space.

The New Glenn rocket, named after pioneering astronaut John Glenn, is a 310-foot reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle that can carry payloads to orbit.

Blue Origin said that New Glenn is designed for a minimum of 25 flights, and can lift 45 tons into low-Earth orbit — as a comparison, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy can lift 70 tons into low-Earth orbit. It's expected to be launched in 2021.

In 2019, Bezos unveiled a giant lunar lander called "Blue Moon" that he said is "going to the moon" and would help Blue Origin populate space. The final goal is to establish what the company calls a "sustained human presence" on the moon.

Blue Origin has also developed five rocket engines since its founding - BE-1, BE-2, BE-3, BE-4, and BE-7. In line with the company's reusability objective, the engines are designed for multiple uses and are tested at its test site in Van Horn, Texas.

Watch: Watch Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket go to space and land back on Earth

• Main content

Blue Origin safely launches four commercial astronauts to space and back

Blue Origin successfully completed New Shepard’s first human flight today with four private citizens onboard. The crew included Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen, who all officially became astronauts when they passed the Kármán Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.

Upon landing, the astronauts were greeted by their families and Blue Origin’s ground operations team for a celebration in the West Texas desert.

A Historic Mission

Wally Funk, 82, became the oldest person to fly in space.  

Oliver Daemen, 18, was the first ever commercial astronaut to purchase a ticket and fly to space on a privately-funded and licensed space vehicle from a private launch site. He also became the youngest person to fly in space.  

New Shepard became the first commercial vehicle under a suborbital reusable launch vehicle license to fly paying customers, both payloads and astronauts, to space and back.  

Jeff and Mark Bezos became the first siblings to ever fly in space together.  

“Today was a monumental day for Blue Origin and human spaceflight,” said Bob Smith, CEO, Blue Origin. “I am so incredibly proud of Team Blue, their professionalism, and expertise in executing today’s flight. This was a big step forward for us and is only the beginning.”

Blue Origin expects to fly two more crewed flights this year, with many more crewed flights planned for 2022.

If you’d like to purchase a commemorative patch from today’s mission, head to the  Blue Origin Shop .

You can also watch a full replay of today's flight and the post-flight press conference below.

If you are interested in securing your own window seat on a future New Shepard launch, sign up for updates on  BlueOrigin.com .

-Gradatim Ferociter

Replay: First Human Flight Pre-Launch Mission Briefing

New Shepard remains go for launch on Tuesday, July 20, from Launch Site One in West Texas. Live broadcast starts at 6:30 am CDT / 11:30 UTC. Watch the replay of today’s pre-launch briefing below:

Watch Live: First Human Flight Pre-Launch Mission Briefing

On Sunday, July 18, Blue Origin will host a pre-launch mission briefing live from Launch Site One in West Texas. The event will be broadcast on BlueOrigin.com beginning at 11:00 a.m. CDT / 16:00 UTC.

The briefing will provide final details about the Tuesday, July 20, First Human Flight mission, including updates on vehicle readiness, flight and safety preparedness, and astronaut training.

Participants:

Bob Smith, Chief Executive Officer

Steve Lanius, Lead Flight Director

Audrey Powers, Vice President, New Shepard Operations

Chris Jaeger, Chief Engineer, New Shepard

Ariane Cornell, Director of Astronaut Sales

Follow @BlueOrigin on Twitter for updates.

-Gradatim Ferociter

How to Watch Blue Origin’s First Human Flight on July 20

New Shepard is go for launch. On July 20, Blue Origin will fly its 16th New Shepard flight to space, and its first with astronauts on board. The launch will be broadcast live on BlueOrigin.com beginning at 6:30 am CDT / 11:30 UTC. Liftoff is currently targeted for 8:00 am CDT / 13:00 UTC.

Following the launch, a live press conference with the astronauts will be broadcast on BlueOrigin.com .

Blue Origin’s Launch Site One is in a remote location in the West Texas desert and there are no on-site public viewing areas in the vicinity of the launch site. The Texas Department of Transportation will be closing a portion of State Highway 54 adjacent to the launch site and will not allow spectators on the closed portion of the road during the launch.

Follow @BlueOrigin on Twitter and sign up on BlueOrigin.com to stay up to date on all mission details.

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Jeff Bezos hails ‘best day ever’ after successful Blue Origin space flight

• Suborbital flight on New Shepard rocket lasted 11 minutes
• Bezos blasted for traveling to space as Amazon workers toil

The Amazon founder Jeff Bezos hailed “the best day ever” after completing his pioneering foray into space on Tuesday with three crewmates, among them his brother Mark.

The billionaire’s New Shepard rocket and capsule touched down in the Texas desert after a suborbital flight that lasted a mere 11 minutes, but set several records for his Blue Origin space company, including the oldest and youngest humans to fly into space.

Wally Funk, an 82-year-old female aviation pioneer who trained as an astronaut in the 1960s, flew as Bezos’s guest, while Oliver Daemen, 18, a student from the Netherlands and son of a private enquiry firm’s chief executive, was Blue Origin’s first paying customer.

The world’s richest man with an estimated net worth of $206bn, Bezos, 57, sprayed champagne and shouted his enjoyment after the successful landing of New Shepard’s first crewed mission following 15 uncrewed test flights.

“It was the best day ever,” Bezos said after emerging from the capsule, adding that he felt “unbelievably good” and that his colleagues were “a very happy crew”.

The tycoon, however, has also attracted criticism for putting his fortune into space tourism amid concerns over working conditions at Amazon, and “aggressive” tax avoidance .

In recent years, Bezos, who stood down as Amazon chief executive this month to concentrate on the space company he founded in 2000, has sold about $1bn in Amazon stock annually to fund Blue Origin.

In a post-flight press conference on Tuesday, Bezos said the venture had reinforced his commitment to tackling the climate crisis, and using New Shepard as a stepping stone towards colonising space for the benefit of Earth.

“The whole point of doing this is to practice,” said Bezos, who announced in February that he was donating $10bn to efforts to “ preserve and protect the natural world ”.

“Every time we fly this tourism mission we’re practicing flying the second stage of New Glenn,” he added, referring to Blue Origin’s planned reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle , which is central to his vision of ultimately moving industry off the planet.

“We’re going to build a road to space so our kids, and their kids, can build the future. This is not about escaping Earth … this is the only good planet in the solar system and we have to take care of it. When you go to space and see how fragile it is you want to take care of it even more.”

Bezos, who donated the proceeds from the New Shepard seat auction to Blue Origin’s Club for the Future to encourage young people to pursue careers in space and science, also announced two $100m “ Courage and Civility” awards for recipients to donate to charities of their choice.

Asked if he would fly into space again, Bezos was unequivocal.

“Hell yes,” he said. “How fast can you refuel that thing? Let’s go.”

The firm intends to run regular space tourism flights for commercial passengers.

New Shepard, named as a tribute to Alan Shepard, the first American in Space in 1961, blasted off into a clear blue sky from the launchpad in Van Horn, Texas, at 8.12am local time, the first of three scheduled flights this year, on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The crew capsule successfully separated from its rocket booster shortly before reaching the 62-mile altitude Kármán Line , the internationally accepted boundary of space, after about three minutes of flight.

The crew experienced about three to four minutes of weightlessness during which the spacecraft reached the top of its flight path at 66.5 miles, more than 10 miles higher than the British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s flight to the edge of space aboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity nine days earlier.

Audio from the capsule on Blue Origin’s live webcast of the flight captured the crew members shouting in excitement as they floated around the spacecraft. Video was later released.

After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the capsule glided to a gentle landing on parachutes, minutes after the reusable booster made a powered landing on a nearby pad.

Mark Bezos assumed the moniker “Astronaut Demo”, for the flight to distinguish him from his brother, Astronaut Bezos. Their sister Christina, director of the family foundation, sent her siblings a message before the flight, reminding them how they would pretend to be Star Trek characters as children.

“As you buckle in, I’m reminded of when Jeff was Captain Kirk, Mark, you were Sulu, and I took the role of Uhura, we would battle Klingons while firing torpedoes, all the while dodging in and out of traffic and praying that we make it to our destination safely,” she said.

“Mark, be prepared to fire those torpedoes in order to do so. Now, get your asses back down here so I can give you a big hug. We love you, and Godspeed New Shepard.”

Blue Origin has opened sales for space tourism flights but has not set a price or revealed how much Daemen paid. The winning bid in a June auction for the first seat was $28m (£20m), the winner pulling out of Tuesday’s flight because of a “scheduling conflict”.

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Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin complete successful spaceflight

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By William Harwood

Updated on: July 20, 2021 / 8:46 PM EDT / CBS News

Riding his own rocket, Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos streaked into space Tuesday on a thrilling 10-minute up-and-down flight, a high-tech joyride that sets the stage for the start of commercial passenger service later this year.

"Best day ever!" an elated Bezos said upon landing.

Competing head to head with fellow billionaire Richard Branson, who flew into space aboard his Virgin Galactic rocketplane July 11, Bezos blasted off with his brother Mark and two history-making passengers: 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk , the oldest person to fly in space, and Oliver Daemen , an 18-year-old Dutch student who is the youngest ever to fly in space.

Funk, who was barred from NASA's initially all-male astronaut corps in the 1960s, finally got her chance to prove the naysayers wrong, realizing a lifelong dream. 

The crew lifted off from the company's West Texas launch site at 9:12 a.m. EDT. 

Climbing straight up atop 110,000 pounds of push, the rocket rapidly accelerated as it consumed its load of supercold liquid oxygen and hydrogen propellants, pushing the passengers back in their recliner-style seats with about three times the normal force of gravity.

In a little more than two minutes, the spacecraft was shooting skyward at three times the speed of sound, dwindling to a blur more than 30 miles up. A few seconds later, at an altitude of about 45 miles, the booster's company-designed BE-3 main engine shut down and the crew capsule was released to fly on its own.

Coasting upward along an unpowered ballistic trajectory, Bezos and his crewmates enjoyed about three minutes of weightlessness, unstrapping, floating about the cabin and taking in the view through the largest windows ever built into a spacecraft.

"I love it!" Funk exclaimed.

Tossing candy and ping pong balls back and forth, doing somersaults and marveling at the view, the crew cavorted like school kids, clearly thrilled by the experience.

"Who wants a Skittle?" Bezos called. "All right, see if you can catch this in your mouth." Daemen did just that, prompting cheers in the cabin. "Toss me one," Bezos said. "Awesome!"

“Who wants a Skittle?”: New footage from inside the capsule shows how Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen spent their time in space https://t.co/5C820HM4EM pic.twitter.com/excCMRm1Zg — CBS News (@CBSNews) July 20, 2021

"That is just incredible," Daemen said a moment later.

"I love it, I love it," Funk said again. She could be seen floating in front of a window, staring out at Earth and space, a view she had dreamed about for decades.

The capsule, named "First Step," reached a maximum altitude of 66.5 miles, more than four miles above the internationally recognized 62-mile-high "boundary" between the aerodynamically discernible atmosphere and space.

That's the altitude recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, a Switzerland-based organization that sanctions aerospace records.

Branson's Virgin Galactic spaceplane flies about 10 miles lower but well above the 50-mile altitude recognized by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration as the point where wings, rudders and other aerosurfaces no longer have any effect.

Two minutes after booster engine shutdown and the onset of weightlessness, the crew was warned they had about a minute to make their way back to their seats to strap in for re-entry. All too soon, weight returned as both began falling back into the lower atmosphere.

The crew had no problems strapping back in. And even on the way down, the view was spectacular. "It's dark up here!" Funk exclaimed. One of her crewmates could be heard saying "well, that was intense" while another said he was "happy, happy, happy!"

The reusable New Shepard booster, meanwhile, headed back to Earth on its own, plunging tail first toward a landing pad two miles from the launch site.

The rocket relied on deployable air brakes and steering fins to maintain its orientation before re-igniting its BE-3 engine, unfolding four hinged legs and settling to a picture-perfect landing.

"Your booster has landed," Blue Origin capsule communicator, or CAPCOM, Sarah Knights radioed the crew.

"It's great to hear about the booster," Bezos replied replied. "You have a very happy crew up here, I want you to know."

At an altitude of about 2,700 feet, three large parachutes unfurled and inflated, slowing the New Shepard's descent to about 16 mph.

Then, just six feet or so off the ground, nitrogen powered thrusters fired, slowing the capsule to just 1 mph and kicking up a roiling cloud of dust as the spacecraft gently touched down.

"Welcome back to Earth, First Step, congratulations to all of you," Knights radioed.

"Very happy group of people in this capsule," Bezos replied. "We're so grateful to everybody who made this possible. Thank you."

Blue Origin recovery crews converged on the capsule within minutes of touchdown to open the hatch and help the returning astronauts exit. All four emerged in obvious high spirits, smiling and hugging family members and support personnel.

"Oh my God!" Bezos told reporters later. "My expectations were high, and they were drastically exceeded. The zero G (gravity) piece may have been one of the biggest surprises because it felt so normal, it felt almost like humans evolved to be in that environment. ... It's a very pleasurable experience."

The most profound aspect, he said, was the view of Earth from an altitude that showcased the fragility of the planet and its thin atmosphere.

"Every astronaut, everybody who's been up into space, they say this, that it changes them, and they look at it and they're kind of amazed and awestruck by the Earth and it beauty, but also by its fragility," he said. "And I can vouch for that.

"It's one thing to recognize that intellectually, it's another thing to actually see with your own eyes how fragile it really is. And that was amazing."

Funk, who once underwent grueling medical tests only to be barred from NASA's early astronaut corps, said she enjoyed "every minute of it."

"I want to thank you, sweetheart, because you made it possible for me," she told Bezos. "I've been waiting a long time to finally get it up there. ... I loved it. I loved being here with all of you, your families. We had a great time. It was wonderful. I want to go again, fast!"

"I have been waiting a long time to finally get up there" Wally Funk, who was barred from NASA's initially all-male astronaut corps in the 1960s, finally got her chance to go to space, realizing a lifelong dream. pic.twitter.com/Hvt9VihQV8 — CBS News (@CBSNews) July 20, 2021

Former astronaut Jeff Ashby, now chief of mission assurance at Blue Origin, pinned astronaut wings on all four crew members. 

As for Tuesday's flight, it was the 16th successful launch of a New Shepard spacecraft, the third for the booster and First Step capsule, and Blue Origin's first with passengers on board.

Blue Origin plans to launch three more New Shepard flights before the end of the year, one with science payloads on board and two with passengers.

"We're going to fly human missions twice more this year," Bezos said. "What we do in the following year, I'm not sure yet. We'll figure that out and what the cadence will eventually be. We want the cadence to be very high."

He added, "We're approaching $100 million in private sales already and the demand is very, very high. So we're going to keep after that."

Ticket prices have not been revealed. The cost of a flight aboard Virgin Galactic's spaceplane is believed to be around $250,000 and Blue Origin tickets are expected to be competitive. But both companies hope economies of scale will eventually lower prices to less astronomical levels.

"We're not done once we fly this vehicle, it's really just the beginning," Lai said. "We are going to ramp up operations. We're going to have dozens and eventually hundreds and thousands of astronauts we hope fly on New Shepard. So it is just the beginning. But it is a monumental moment nevertheless."

CBS News' Mark Strassmann reports on the historic journey in the video below:

Jeff Bezos shares emotional moment in exclusive interview

Jeff and Mark Bezos sat down for an exclusive interview with "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King after they landed back on Earth.

"Clearly it's a bonding moment for the two of you. Did you have a moment with the two of you up there?" King asked.

"We had a couple of those moments," Jeff Bezos replied. "We had about, I don't know, 25 minutes on the ground, with the crew capsules sealed. So it's just the four of us in there, and my brother and I, we picked seats so that we could see each other from our seats … We had some really good, quality time there." 

Before liftoff, mission control read them a message from their sister, Christina: "Now hurry up and your a-- back down here so I can give you a huge hug. We love you and Godspeed," her message said. 

"I actually teared up right there in the capsule," Jeff Bezos said. "It was so heartfelt and, you know, she talked about some of the things we did as kids. It was a very sweet message." 

Watch more of Gayle King's interview with Jeff and Mark Bezos on " CBS This Morning " on Wednesday.

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Bezos announces major philanthropic donation

Bezos capped off his post-landing press conference by announcing a new philanthropic initiative, the Courage and Civility Award. Recipients will be given $100 million to distribute to the charities and nonprofits of their choice.

"It recognizes leaders who aim high and who pursue solutions with courage and who always do so with civility," Bezos said. "It's easy to be courageous but also mean. Try being courageous and civil. Try being courageous and a unifier. That's harder, and way better, and makes the world better."

He announced two recipients Tuesday: Van Jones, a lawyer, TV commentator and co-founder of Dream Corps, which is focused on criminal justice reform; and chef José Andrés , founder of World Central Kitchen, which provides meals in the wake of natural disasters.

Both men will receive $100 million, Bezos said, with "no bureaucracy, no committees, they just do what they want. They can give it all to their own charity or they can share the wealth. It's up to them."

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Jeff Bezos on the most profound moment of spaceflight

Shortly after landing, Jeff Bezos told CBS News' Mark Strassmann that he felt at peace up at the edge of space. 

"The most interesting thing about that is it felt so normal and natural. Almost like we were, humans were evolved to be in zero G. Which of course is impossible, but it felt that way. It felt peaceful, serene and calm, surprisingly natural," Bezos said. 

The most profound moment, he said, was when he looked out at the Earth's atmosphere and realized how "teensy" it was.

"You hear about that, but to see it is a different thing. We think the atmosphere is gigantic because it is all around us, but in reality, when you get up there, you can see it is life-sustaining and teensy."

Bezos said spaceflight was a humbling experience.

"You look at this thing, and you see how small you are, and you see that the world is big, you see that the atmosphere is small. You see that there are no boundaries or no lines, no national states," Bezos said.  "This world is full of not enough unifiers and too many vilifiers. When you get up there, you see that we are one world, this is one planet, and we should have a lot of unifiers."

While Bezos' space dream became a reality when he blasted off aboard his New Shepard rocket, he says this is just the beginning. Asked if today's flight will motivate him to push deeper into the cosmos, Bezos replied, "Hell yes!"

"Hell yes!": Jeff Bezos tells CBS News' Mark Strassmann that this morning's successful Blue Origin flight will motivate him to push deeper into space. https://t.co/NTBGPuuMhx pic.twitter.com/FFBB2wjack — CBS News (@CBSNews) July 20, 2021

"We are already building our orbital vehicle. We have to build a road to space. This … tourism mission is about practicing. You can fly this over and over again and get really good at it. Because we have to have space vehicles that are operable as commercial airliners," he said. "Then the next generation of kids can build truly great things in space and move all heavy industry and polluting industry off Earth and protect this gem of a planet." 

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"How it felt? Oh my God!"

The crew held a press conference at the Blue Origin launch facility to talk about their flight about two and a half hours after landing.

Jeff Bezos thanked the team and added, "I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this."

He said the spaceflight experience was even better than he hoped.

"How it felt? Oh my God! My expectations were high but they were drastically exceeded," he said.

Jeff Bezos says he will definitely be flying into space again "soon" https://t.co/5C820HM4EM pic.twitter.com/D921o1QxgC — CBS News (@CBSNews) July 20, 2021

"I felt great," said crewmate Wally Funk, who first sought to join NASA's astronaut corps in the 1960s.

"I want to thank you, sweetheart, because you made it possible for me," she said to Bezos. "I have been waiting a long time to finally get up there."

“We can confirm that Wally, once again in training, outperformed the men, 100%,” Jeff Bezos says of aviation icon Wally Funk https://t.co/5C820HM4EM pic.twitter.com/T6mNgKFqeV — CBS News (@CBSNews) July 20, 2021

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Who is Wally Funk?

Wally Funk , a trailblazing aviator, became the oldest person ever to travel to space with  Tuesday's flight.

The 82-year-old had her first flight lesson at age 9, became a licensed pilot at 17 and has logged more than 19,000 flying hours. But her lifelong dream of going to space eluded her — until now.

In the 1960s, while America's first astronauts were going through NASA's rigorous training, Funk was part of the Mercury 13, a group of 13 women who went through the same grueling exams. She recently described to CBS News' Michelle Miller some of the painful and strenuous tests the group of women endured.

"X-raying all over your body, every bone, every tooth, sticking water into your ears. I had to drink radioactive water," she said.

The women of Mercury 13 met — and often surpassed — the results of the men. But the women would never get their chance. NASA required astronauts to be military test pilots, and the military at the time didn't allow women to fly.

On Tuesday, though, her dream was realized.

"I'm going. That is my quest," she said ahead of the spaceflight. "I love flying, that's my job, that's what I love. And I'm not a quitter." 

At a press conference after landing, she grinned from ear to ear as she received her astronaut wings for the achievement.

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Celebrating with a champagne shower

Jeff Bezos and his crewmates were greeted by cheering family members and friends upon their return. Bezos and others popped bottles of champagne in celebration, showering the crew with it.

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Picture-perfect landing

Eight minutes after liftoff, the three parachutes deployed on the crew capsule to slow it down for landing as it descended back to Earth.

The capsule landed with a gentle touchdown at 9:22 a.m. EDT.

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Jeff Bezos and three crewmates blasted off at 9:12 a.m. EDT on Blue Origin's first passenger space flight. The thrilling 10-minute up-and-down flight to an altitude of over 62 miles above the Earth is intended to set the stage for the start of commercial passenger service later this year.

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"Brief hold" is lifted, with crew in the capsule ready to go

The four crew members are strapped into their seats and ready for launch, but with about 15 minutes left in the countdown Blue Origin said there would be a "brief hold." It did not explain the reason for the delay. Most of the company's recent test flights have also had at least brief delays before launching.

The hold was lifted a few minutes later and the countdown resumed.

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Astronauts head to the launch pad

The crew emerged from Blue Origin's astronaut training center and climbed into an SUV for the ride to the launch pad about 45 minutes ahead of the scheduled launch time. A few minutes later they arrived and climbed the stairs to board the crew capsule.

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Final preparations underway

"CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King reports from the launch site near Van Horn, Texas, that weather conditions look good for launch Tuesday morning. Blue Origin says the crew is ready to go.

"Our astronauts have completed training and are a go for launch," the company tweeted .

"#NewShepard is on the pad. The launch team completed vehicle rollout this morning and final preparations are underway." 

#NewShepard is on the pad. The launch team completed vehicle rollout this morning and final preparations are underway. Liftoff is targeted for 8:00 am CDT / 13:00 UTC. Live broadcast begins at T-90 minutes on https://t.co/7Y4TherpLr . #NSFirstHumanFlight pic.twitter.com/oShmtRmA4n — Blue Origin (@blueorigin) July 20, 2021

The launch is scheduled for a significant date in space history — the 52nd anniversary of the  Apollo 11 moon landing .

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New Shepard rocket designed to be "the safest human spaceflight vehicle"

When he launches into space, Jeff Bezos will be giving his company's product the ultimate endorsement: riding on a fully automated rocket that has never before carried a human to the edge of space.

"We set out to create the safest human spaceflight vehicle ever designed or built or operated," said Gary Lai, director of design for the New Shepard.

The system's safety features include three braking parachutes and thrusters to slow the capsule right before landing so it touches down at just 1 mile per hour.

"The capsule is designed to be survivable if only one of the main parachutes opens," Lai told CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann. The system "will do its utmost to slow the vehicle down, but then there is a crushable structure at the bottom of the capsule that will absorb some of the impact, and then the seat has an energy absorption mechanism, a scissor mechanism, that then takes the astronaut and decelerates them at a safe velocity."

Another safety feature is the integrated, autonomous escape system. 

Ariane Cornell, director of astronaut and orbital sales at Blue Origin, explained, "If there's any issue detected with the rocket ... we will fire this escape motor to get the capsule far and fast away from the booster."

And they've made sure it works at every stage of the mission: on the launch pad, in flight and all the way in space. In all 15 test flights, the capsule returned safely to the ground.

"There's a lot of people, hundreds of engineers over the years that have worked on this vehicle. So this is a culmination of a dream for them," Lai said.

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Meet the Blue Origin crew

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and one of the wealthiest men in the world with a net worth of more than $200 billion, started Blue Origin in 2000 to turn his dream of commercial spaceflight into reality. Two decades later, he announced plans to board its first passenger flight along with his younger brother, Mark.

"Ever since I was five years old, I've dreamed of traveling to space," Bezos wrote on  Instagram . "On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend."

He later introduced two more crewmates:  Wally Funk , a legendary pilot who was one of the 13 female fliers tested but ultimately barred from NASA's initially all-male astronaut corps in the 1960s, and teenage space enthusiast Oliver Daemen, whose family paid an undisclosed sum for his seat.

All four talked about their excitement in an interview on "CBS This Morning" the day before launch.

The flight was originally supposed to include the winner of an online auction who bid $28 million for the privilege, but that anonymous bidder had a schedule conflict and opted to join a later flight instead.

The crew was slated to undergo 14 hours of training over two days to familiarize them with the spacecraft, but they won't actually be flying it themselves — the New Shepard is fully automated , with no pilots or flight controls onboard.

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Billionaire owners deny it's a "space race" as they vie for wealthy passengers

After Bezos announced his launch plans, Richard Branson, owner of the rival space company Virgin Galactic, upstaged him by lifting off on his own sub-orbital flight on July 11. But they both insist they don't view the competition as a "space race."

"I've said this so many times, it really wasn't a race," Branson said after landing. "We're just delighted that everything went so fantastically well. We wish Jeff the absolute best and the people who are going up with him during his flight."

Blue Origin, in its  mission statement , says "we are not in a race" and vows to pursue its goal of "building a road to space" according to its Latin motto,  Gradatim Ferociter : "Step by step, ferociously."

Yet both are looking for an edge in the emerging business of launching paying customers on short trips to space. 

Virgin Galactic plans to start regular commercial operations in early 2022, and is aiming to carry out 400 flights per year from Spaceport America, its base in New Mexico. Some 600 tickets have already been sold, including to Hollywood celebrities, for prices ranging between $200,000 and $250,000. Tickets are expected to be even more expensive when they go on sale to the public.

Blue Origin has yet to announce ticket prices or a date for the start of commercial operations. 

However, while the companies are enthusiastic, the idea of billionaire owners and wealthy passengers spending huge sums on space tourism has sparked some backlash. 

"Jeff Bezos' 11-minute thrill ride to space is an insult to the millions of people here on planet Earth who struggle every day to feed their families and make ends meet," Oxfam America said in a statement. "Many of them are the very Amazon workers who helped make Bezos the richest man in the world."

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Blue Origin vs Virgin Galactic: How their spacecraft compare

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin chose different routes to space.

Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spaceplane, which carries two pilots and up to six passengers, is launched from a carrier jet that flies it up an altitude of about 45,000 feet. From there, it is released and fires its rocket engine to propel it to an altitude of a little over 50 miles above the Earth. 

The crew gets to experience about three minutes of weightlessness before the spaceplane begins a spiraling descent and glides to a runway landing.  Branson's flight  lasted 59 minutes from takeoff to touchdown.

Blue Origin's crew capsule launches vertically atop a reusable single-stage rocket and then soars out of the lower atmosphere on its own to an altitude higher than 62 miles before arcing over and beginning a parachute descent back to Earth. The entire flight lasts about 10 minutes.

Though Blue Origin's flight is shorter, both companies offer passengers about the same amount of time in weightlessness.

NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Space Force agree that space effectively begins at an altitude of 50 miles, so Branson's flight earned him his "astronaut wings."

The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), an international body based in Switzerland that certifies aerospace records, considers an altitude of 100 kilometers, or 62 miles — a level known as the Kármán Line — as the dividing line between the discernible atmosphere and space. 

Blue Origin's spacecraft is designed to reach that higher altitude, and the company boasted in a tweet : "None of our astronauts have an asterisk next to their name." 

Virgin Galactic says the altitude difference is trivial and that no such "asterisk" is warranted given that NASA and other U.S. authorities all consider altitudes higher than 50 miles to be in space.

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How to watch the Blue Origin space launch

• What:  Jeff Bezos and three crewmates launch aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft
• Date:  Tuesday, July 20, 2021
• Time:  Liftoff currently targeted for 9 a.m. EDT
• Location:  Blue Origin's Launch Site One, in the desert near Van Horn, Texas
• On TV:  "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King and "CBS Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell lead CBS News' Special Report on the launch — coverage begins at 8:59 a.m. EDT on  your local CBS station
• Online stream:  Watch live on  CBSN  in the video player above or on your  mobile or streaming device  — coverage begins at 8:15 a.m. EDT
• https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/jeff-bezos-space-flight-date-time-live-stream/#post-update-ec0a5204 link copied
• Blue Origin

Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News.

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EXPLAINER: How Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos will soar into space

In this Jan. 14, 2021 photo made available by Blue Origin, the New Shepard NS-14 rocket lifts off from Launch Site One in West Texas. On Tuesday, July 20, 2021, Blue Origin’s 60-foot (18-meter) New Shepard rocket will accelerate toward space at three times the speed of sound, or Mach 3, before separating from the capsule and returning for an upright landing. (Blue Origin via AP)

In this undated photo made available by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, center, and others inspect Crew Capsule 2.0 after touchdown in West Texas. When Blue Origin launches people into space for the first time, Bezos will be on board. No test pilots or flight engineers for the Tuesday, July 20, 2021 debut flight from West Texas - just Bezos, his brother, an 82-year-old aviation pioneer and a teenager. (Blue Origin via AP)

In this Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017 photo, Mark Bezos attends day two of Summit LA17 in Los Angeles. When Blue Origin launches people into space for the first time on Tuesday, July 20, 2021, Mark Bezos will be on board with his brother Jeff Bezos, an 82-year-old aviation pioneer and a teenager. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

In this 2019 photo made available by NASA, Mercury 13 astronaut trainee Wally Funk visits the Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland, Ohio. On Thursday, July 1, 2021, Blue Origin announced the early female aerospace pioneer will be aboard the company’s July 20 launch from West Texas, flying as an “honored guest.” (NASA via AP)

This 2021 photo provided by his family shows Oliver Daemen in an airplane cockpit. The 18-year-old from the Netherlands is about to become the youngest person in space. Blue Origin announced Thursday, July 15, 2021, that the teenager will be traveling on the July 20 launch in West Texas. (Daemen Family via AP)

This undated photo made available by Blue Origin shows the interior of the crew capsule. When Blue Origin launches people into space for the first time, Bezos will be on board. No test pilots or flight engineers for the Tuesday, July 20, 2021 debut flight from West Texas - just Bezos, his brother, an 82-year-old aviation pioneer and a teenager. (Michael Craft/Blue Origin via AP)

In this Jan. 14, 2021 photo made available by Blue Origin, the New Shepard NS-14 booster rocket lands at Launch Site One in West Texas. (Blue Origin via AP)

In this April 14, 2021 photo made available by Blue Origin, the New Shepard Crew Capsule descends from space on during a test in West Texas. (Blue Origin via AP)

In this undated photo made available by Blue Origin, members of the team celebrate with founder Jeff Bezos at the site of the New Shepard rocket booster landing in West Texas. When Blue Origin launches people into space for the first time, Bezos will be on board. No test pilots or flight engineers for the Tuesday, July 20, 2021 debut flight from West Texas - just Bezos, his brother, an 82-year-old aviation pioneer and a teenager. (Blue Origin via AP)

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — When Blue Origin launches people into space for the first time, founder Jeff Bezos will be on board. No test pilots or flight engineers for Tuesday’s debut flight from West Texas, just Bezos, his brother, an 82-year-old aviation pioneer and a teenage tourist.

The capsule is entirely automated, unlike Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic rocket plane that required two pilots to get him to space and back a week ago.

Branson’s advice? “Just sit back, relax, look out of the window, just absorb the view outside,” he said on CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

Differences in quirks and rockets aside, the billionaire rivals are gearing up to launch just about anybody willing to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for a brief up-and-down space hop.

A brief look at what awaits Bezos and his passengers:

BEZOS ON BOARD

Bezos created Blue Origin in 2000, a move that he said prompted his high school girlfriend to observe, “Jeff started Amazon just to get enough money to do Blue Origin — and I can’t prove her wrong.” He has said he finances the rocket company by selling $1 billion in Amazon stock a year. Bezos caught the space bug at age 5 while watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon landing on July, 20, 1969. He chose the 52nd anniversary for his own launch. Enamored by space history, Bezos named his New Shepard rocket after Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and his bigger, still-in-development New Glenn rocket after John Glenn, the first American in orbit. The 57-year-old Bezos — who also owns The Washington Post — stepped down as Amazon’s CEO earlier this month and last week donated $200 million to the Smithsonian Institution to renovate its National Air and Space Museum and launch an education center. “To see the Earth from space, it changes you. It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity,” he said. “It’s a thing I’ve wanted to do all my life.”

WHO ELSE IS FLYING

Bezos personally invited two of his fellow passengers — his 50-year-old brother Mark, an investor and volunteer firefighter, and female aviation pioneer Wally Funk. Joining them will be Oliver Daemen, a last-minute fill-in for the winner of a $28 million charity auction who had a scheduling conflict. At age 82, Funk will become the oldest person in space. She was among 13 female pilots — the so-called Mercury 13 — who took the same tests in the early 1960s as NASA’s Mercury 7 astronauts, but were barred because of their gender. “Finally!” Funk exclaimed when offered a seat alongside Bezos. As for the Dutch Daemen — who at 18 will become the youngest person in space — his financier father bid on the capsule seat in June, but dropped out when the price soared. Blue Origin came calling just over a week ago, after the unidentified auction winner switched to a later flight. The teenage space fanatic, who starts college this fall, is Blue Origin’s first paying customer; no word on what his ticket cost.

ROCKET AND CAPSULE

While Bezos won’t be the first boss to ride to space on his own rocket, he can lay claim to strapping in for his company’s first human launch. He’s also aiming higher, with an anticipated altitude of about 66 miles (106 kilometers) versus Branson’s 53.5 miles (86 kilometers). Blue Origin’s 60-foot (18-meter) New Shepard rocket will accelerate toward space at three times the speed of sound, or Mach 3, before separating from the capsule and returning for an upright landing. The passengers will experience three to four minutes of weightlessness, before their capsule parachutes onto the desert just 10 minutes after liftoff. That’s five minutes less than Alan Shepard’s 1961 Mercury flight. Blue Origin, though, offers the biggest windows ever built for a spacecraft. Bezos purchased the desolate, parched land for launching and landing rockets. The closest town is Van Horn, population 1,832.

TRACK RECORD

Blue Origin has completed 15 test flights to space since 2015, carrying up experiments, children’s postcards and Mannequin Skywalker, the company’s passenger stand-in. Except for the booster crash-landing on the first trip, all the demos were successful. One rocket ended up flying seven times and another five. The capsules also were recycled. Blue Origin deliberately aborted a couple flights after liftoff to test the emergency escape system on the capsule. The pace seemed slow compared with the competition, and many wondered why Blue Origin — its motto Gradatim Ferociter, or step by step ferociously — was taking so long to launch people. Based in Kent, Washington, the company kept fairly mum on its launch plans. Bezos finally announced “it’s time” following the last test flight in April, a dress rehearsal that saw mock passengers briefly climb aboard before liftoff. The rocket and capsule that will be used Tuesday have flown twice before.

WHAT’S NEXT

Blue Origin is expected to open ticket sales soon after Bezos flies and has already lined up some of the other auction bidders. The company hasn’t disclosed the cost of a ride. The fourth seat on the upcoming flight was auctioned off for $28 million. Nineteen space advocacy and education groups are getting $1 million each as a result, with the rest to be used by Blue Origin’s Club for the Future for its own education effort. While the diminutive New Shepard is meant to launch people on brief flights to the edge of space, the mega New Glenn will be capable of hauling cargo and eventually crew into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, possibly beginning late next year. Blue Origin also has its eyes on the moon. Its proposed lunar lander, Blue Moon, lost to SpaceX’s Starship in NASA’s recent commercial competition to develop the technology for getting the next astronauts onto the moon. Blue Origin is challenging the contract award, as is , the other competitor.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Russia set to build new space center in Moscow (PHOTOS)

Russia’s new National Space Center is being constructed on the site of the Khrunichev State Space Research and Production Center in western Moscow.

On June 21, the Moscow City Architecture Committee approved the urban planning solution, according to the official website of the Moscow Mayor’s Office.

The tender to develop the architectural concept, announced in October 2019, was won by the Russian design bureau UNK Project.

According to their concept, the main component of the center will be a triangular tower in the form of a 248m-tall rocket, which will house the headquarters of Roscosmos. The facade of the building will be illuminated to create a moving-up effect. And at the base, lighting fixtures will simulate the flame of a rocket booster.

Adjoining the tower will be a long building with research labs and offices. This building will be traversed by a 545m-long central gallery, along which canteens and consumer services will be located.

In addition, the complex will feature open-air museums in U-shaped courtyards, where pieces of aerospace equipment will be suspended in the air via cables between the buildings.

The ceremonial laying of the first stone took place in September 2019, and construction is scheduled to finish by 2022.

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YEAR IN REVIEW

A Look Back at the Biggest News of 2021

A timeline told through The Wall Street Journal’s coverage

Jan. 6 - Mob Storms Capitol

A pro-Trump riot forces the evacuation of the House and Senate and delays Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s election win into the overnight hours.

Rioters at the U.S. Capitol.

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg News, Cover: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty

Jan. 13 - Trump Is Impeached Over Riot

The House votes to impeach President Trump, alleging that he encouraged the Jan. 6 mob to storm Congress as part of an effort to overturn his election defeat; the Senate will acquit him in February.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi displays the signed article of impeachment.

Alex Brandon/AP

Jan. 21 - Pandemic Push

On his first full day in office, President Biden signs 10 executive orders to combat the coronavirus, seeking to jump-start the U.S. response.

A pharmacist administers a vaccine at the Sequoia Living facility in Portola Valley, Calif.

Rachel Bujalski for WSJ

Jan. 27 - Meme-Stock Mania

Share prices soar for GameStop, AMC and BlackBerry —companies once left for dead—in a rally that pits day-trading amateurs against Wall Street shorts.

Keith Gill helped drive the GameStop stock mania.

Kayana Szymczak for WSJ

Feb. 2 - Russia Sentences Navalny

A Russian court sentences opposition leader Alexei Navalny to 3½ years in prison for violating parole while he was recovering from a near-fatal poison attack in 2020.

Alexei Navalny during a hearing in Moscow

Moscow City Court/AP

Feb. 4 - Chip Crunch at Auto Makers

Ford says it plans to reduce production of its F-150 pickup truck—the nation’s top-selling vehicle—because of the global chip shortage.

New Ford F-150 pickup trucks sit in a Detroit lot awaiting chip deliveries so they can be finished and shipped to dealers

Jim West/Zuma Press

Feb. 7 - Brady’s Bunch of Rings

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers win the Super Bowl, giving Tom Brady his seventh title in his first season after leaving New England.

Tom Brady reacts after defeating the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Fla.

Mike Ehrmann/Getty

Feb. 15 - Deep Freeze and Power Outage in Texas

Millions of Texans are left without electricity as a winter storm boosts demand and crimps supplies, the start of outages that would last for days.

Alex Johnson and his 4-month-old daughter on their way to a relative’s house in Austin, Texas, amid the freeze.

Julia Robinson for WSJ

March 11 - Covid Stimulus

President Biden signs into law a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 stimulus package and urges states to make all adults eligible for vaccination by May 1.

Doug Mills/CNP/Zuma

March 11 - NFTs Arrive

The artist known as Beeple sells a digital collage at Christie’s for $69 million, launching the art world’s craze for nonfungible tokens.

Beeple's ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days.’

Beeple/Christie's

March 23 - Ship Blocks Suez Canal

The container ship Ever Given gets stuck sideways in the Suez Canal, blocking traffic for nearly a week.

The Ever Given is lodged sideways in the Suez Canal.

Maxar/AFP/Getty

March 24 - Border Crossings Jump

Men looking for work drive a surge in illegal crossings at the southern U.S. border.

Migrants from Central America walk along the bank of the Rio Grande after crossing into the U.S. from Mexico.

Adrees Latif/Reuters

April 14 - Biden Sets Afghanistan Withdrawal

President Biden says he’ll withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, winding down the war there two decades after it began.

U.S. Marines in Helmand Province in Afghanistan in 2009.

Manpreet Romana/AFP/Getty

April 20 - Murder Conviction in George Floyd Case

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is found guilty of murder in the May 2020 death of George Floyd, which sparked racial-justice protests around the world.

People gather in front of Cup Foods in Minneapolis to mark the verdict at the site of George Floyd’s death.

Samuel Corum/CNP/Zuma

May 7 - Cyberattack Cuts Off Key Gasoline Supply

The main pipeline carrying gasoline and diesel fuel to the U.S. East Coast is shut down due to a cyberattack, an outage that will last nearly a week.

Colonial Pipeline Facility in Pelham, Alabama

Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg News

May 13 - CDC Eases Safety Guidance for Vaccinated People

Fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask or physically distance during most outdoor or indoor activities, the CDC says.

Fully vaccinated customers gather at the bar inside Risky Business in North Hollywood, Calif., as restrictions ease.

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty

May 19 - Texas Abortion Law

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs a bill banning most abortions after six to eight weeks of pregnancy.

LM Otero/AP

June 2 - Netanyahu Out in Israel

Benjamin Netanyahu’s rivals agree to form a coalition government that will dislodge Israel’s longest-serving leader.

Outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset in Jerusalem

Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Getty

June 24 - Florida Condo Collapse

A 12-story section of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex in Surfside, Fla., collapses, leaving 98 people dead.

Search and rescue personnel work in the rubble of the Champlain Towers South condo.

Joe Raedle/Getty

July 1 - Delta Wave Delays Return to Normal

The fast spread of the Covid-19 Delta variant is thwarting many countries’ plans to lift lockdowns and reopen economies.

A volunteer undertaker prepares a body bag for a suspected Covid-19 victim in West Java, Indonesia.

Muhammad Fadli for WSJ

July 8 - The Games Will Go On, Without Spectators

Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics, opening July 23, ban spectators from the Games as Covid-19 cases surge.

Czech gymnast Aneta Holasova performs on the parallel bars to empty stands In Tokyo.

Paul Kuroda/Zuma

July 11 - Branson Takes Flight

Richard Branson reaches the edge of space and safely returns to Earth, beating Amazon founder Jeff Bezos by nine days.

Virgin Galactic/Zuma

July 29 - Federal Vaccine Mandate

President Biden says federal employees must get vaccinated against Covid-19 or wear a mask on the job and be tested regularly.

A healthcare worker in New York prepares to administer Pfizer’s vaccine.

Mary Altaffer/AP

Aug. 10 - Cuomo to Step Down

Andrew Cuomo says he is resigning as New York’s governor, following a report by the state’s attorney general that found he harassed multiple women who worked for him.

Ana Liss, one of Andrew Cuomo’s accusers whom the attorney general’s report found credible.

Libby March for WSJ

Aug. 15 - The Taliban Takes Over

Afghanistan’s government falls as Taliban fighters take over the capital; a U.S.-led military airlift begins to evacuate Western diplomats and others.

Taliban fighters drive through a Kabul neighborhood as they and their comrades sweep through the city.

Victor J. Blue for WSJ

Aug. 29 - Hurricane Hits Louisiana

Hurricane Ida makes landfall near New Orleans on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, with winds of 150 miles an hour and life-threatening storm surges.

Damaged power lines in Reserve, La., after Hurricane Ida.

Matt Slocum/AP

Aug. 30 - America’s Longest War Ends

The last U.S. troops in Afghanistan withdraw, ending nearly 20 years of fighting but leaving more than 100 Americans and tens of thousands of America’s Afghan allies to an uncertain future.

U.S. soldiers board an U.S. Air Force aircraft at the airport in Kabul.

Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty

Sept. 14 - The Facebook Files

Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teenage girls, its research shows, but the company plays down the issue in public.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

Stephen Voss for WSJ

Sept. 22 - FDA Clears Vaccine Boosters

The FDA approves Covid-19 vaccine booster shots for people 65 and older and other adults at high risk of severe illness.

A patient receives his third dose of the Moderna vaccine in White Plains, N.Y.

Desiree Rios for WSJ

Oct. 11 - Xi Reshaping China’s Economy

Chinese officials are scrutinizing state banks’ ties with big private-sector players as part of President Xi’s push to curb capitalist forces in the economy.

President Xi, left, arrives for an event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Roman Pilipey/EPA/Shutterstock

Oct. 28 - Beyond Facebook

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company is changing its name to Meta Platforms to reflect opportunities in online digital realms known as the metaverse.

A sign with Meta’s logo outside company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

Liu Guanguan/CNS/Getty

Nov. 8 - Grand Reopening

U.S. borders reopen to citizens of 33 countries who were barred by Covid-19 restrictions for more than 18 months.

Paul Campbell greets his fiancée, Patricia Bittag, as she arrives in Boston. The pair was apart for nearly two years.

Brian Snyder/Reuters

Nov. 13 - Climate-Change Agreement

More than 190 nations reach a deal at the United Nations climate summit that aims to accelerate greenhouse-gas-emissions cuts across the world, but leaves big questions over how governments will follow through.

Greta Thunberg, Swedish environmentalist, speaks during a demonstration at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland.

Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg News

Nov. 15 - Infrastructure Week

President Biden signs into law a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure package with spending on roads, bridges, rail and more.

President Biden signs the infrastructure bill on the South Lawn of the White House.

Evan Vucci/AP

Nov. 19 - Covid-19 Boosters for Adults

The FDA clears Covid-19 vaccine boosters from Pfizer -BioNTech and Moderna for all adults.

A pharmacist administers a booster shot at a vaccination clinic in San Rafael, Calif.

Justin Sullivan/Getty

Dec. 10 - Tornado Outbreak

Tornadoes rip through Kentucky and five other states, killing scores of people and leveling entire towns.

A home in Mayfield, Ky., after the town was badly damaged by a tornado.

Brandon Bell/Getty

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