Blue Origin launch recap: Jeff Bezos soars to the edge of space in historic flight
Jeff Bezos and three others are launched to the edge of space on Tuesday.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos blasted to the edge of space and spent a few minutes outside Earth's atmosphere Tuesday on the first crewed flight from his firm Blue Origin.
An elated Bezos could be heard calling it "the best day ever" after landing back on Earth.
The milestone launch in the modern commercial space race comes on the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's moon landing in 1969, though the space-faring landscape has evolved by giant leaps since then as billionaires emerge as key players driving the new race to the cosmos.
Bezos, who holds the title of the richest man in the world per Bloomberg data, has said the spaceflight will fulfill a lifelong dream and he is also curious how it will "change" him.
Here is how the launch unfolded.
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Capsule lands back on earth
After an approximately 10-minute journey, the capsule floated back down to the earth via a parachute and touched down at approximately 9:23 a.m ET.
"It was so amazing, it was so amazing," Daemen can be heard saying upon landing.
Booster lands back on earth
The booster has returned to earth, landing successfully while the capsule carrying the crew has crossed the Karman line -- the boundary between earth’s atmosphere and space.
“You have a very happy crew up here, I want you to know,” one of the astronauts can be heard saying.
Capsule separates from booster, astronauts are experiencing 'Zero-G'
Mission Control has confirmed the capsule has separated from the booster and the astronauts are now experiencing a few minutes of weightlessness.
Audio from the capsule captures the joyful moments the crew discovered they were in microgravity.
New Shepard soars in first flight with humans aboard
The New Shepard spacecraft lifted off and cleared the tower at around 9:12 a.m. ET, carrying the Bezos brothers, Funk and Daemen to the edge of space.
The spacetrip will be 11 minutes total.
’I want to go again,’ says an emotional Wally Funk
Funk officially became the oldest person ever to go to space on Tuesday and fulfilled a lifelong dream that had been put on hold for decades because she is a woman.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to finally get up there,” the emotional 82-year-old said after the spaceflight. “I didn't do dolls, I did outside stuff, I flew airplanes.”
Funk trained with the so-called Mercury 13 program for women astronauts in the '60s, but NASA at the time was only sending men into space.
She called her trip to space on Tuesday "wonderful" and "a great time."
The pioneer for women in aerospace also added that she is not done with space travel just yet, saying, “I want to go again, fast!”