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

Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon CEO earlier this month ahead of the launch, thanked the staff and customers of his e-commerce empire for funding the trip. 

“I also want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all of this,” he said during the post-launch news conference.

“Seriously, for every Amazon customer out there and every Amazon employee, thank you from the bottom of my heart,” he added. 

Bezos has previously said that he sold some $1 billion in Amazon stock annually to fund Blue Origin in its infancy.

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.

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“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.