By Salim Yunusa
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.
The crew riding with Jeff Bezos includes his brother Mark (left), 18-year-old physics student Oliver Daemen and 82-year-old pioneering female aviator Wally Funk.
Blue Origin
The founder of Amazon, who stepped down as CEO earlier 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 be his 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, an 18-year-old physics student. Daemen, whose seat was paid for by his father Joes, the 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.
After they experienced weightlessness, their capsule glided back down to the desert and the four crewmates emerged to be greeted by their jubilant families.
