Blue Origin launch recap: Jeff Bezos soars to the edge of space

Blue Origin’s Jeff Ashby, a former Space Shuttle commander, presented astronaut wings to the four crew members at a post-launch press conference. 

Ashby said the wings were designed with “a tiny blue sapphire” at the top, “to remind these folks that they are from planet Earth and that they have a mission to protect this home.” 

While presenting wings to the Amazon founder, Ashby told Bezos, "There are few people I know more deserving of this."

"I don’t know what you are going to do next, but I can’t wait to watch," Ashby added.

An emotional Funk said it was the best pin she has ever received -- and promised there would be “more to come.”

Shortly after landing back on Earth, the elated Amazon founder opened up about his experience in a brief interview with ABC News’ Michael Strahan. 

“I’m speechless in a way … I don’t have the talent to put into words what we just experienced, maybe we need to send a poet up at some point or something,” Bezos said. “But it was incredible.”

Ahead of his flight, Bezos told Strahan he was curious how leaving Earth’s atmosphere would “change” him. Now that he’s returned, the billionaire said he was awestruck by how “tiny” and fragile our planet is.

] text=[MORE: Jeff Bezos says he's curious how space is 'going to change me' ahead of historic flight]/

“My initial thought is, I can't believe it, even though I’ve heard it and read it, I can't believe how tiny the Earth's atmosphere is,” Bezos said. “So when we're standing down here, it looks huge, you know, we're surrounded by Earth's atmosphere, we're breathing it all the time.” 

“When you get up there, you see that it's this tiny, thin little thing that makes you realize just how precious it is and how fragile it is how much we need to take care of it,” he added. 

Overall, Bezos said the spaceflight exceeded all of his expectations.

Blue Origin released some statistics on the mission shortly after the capsule landed back on Earth. 

The crew capsule reached an altitude of some 347,563 feet (approximately 65.8 miles) above ground level. 

The maximum ascent velocity was some 2,233 mph. 

In total, the mission was 10 minutes and 10 seconds.

Sir Richard Branson, who flew to the edge of space via his own company Virgin Galactic earlier this month, sent well-wishes to Bezos and his crew on Tuesday.

“Impressive! Very best to all the crew from me and all the team at @virgingalactic,” the commercial space entrepreneur wrote. 

] text=[MORE: Richard Branson, crew go to space and back on Virgin Galactic spaceship]/

Branson beat fellow billionaire Bezos into space by just nine days.