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Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin crew successfully completes spaceflight

July 20, 2021 23:09 IST

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his crew successfully completed a spaceflight on Tuesday morning (local time). They were flying on the New Shepard, the rocket ship made by his space company, Blue Origin.

IMAGE: Billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos is launched with three crew members aboard a New Shepard rocket on the world's first unpiloted suborbital flight from Blue Origin's Launch Site 1 near Van Horn, Texas , US. Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

"Congratulations to all of Team Blue past and present on reaching this historic moment in spaceflight history. This first astronaut crew wrote themselves into the history books of space, opening the door through which many after will pass. #GradatimFerociter #NSFirstHumanFlight," tweeted Blue Origin.

The 10-minute flight went up more than 60 miles above Earth. On board the flight was Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, pilot Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen.

After decades of waiting, Wally Funk finally accomplished her dream of flying to space, becoming the oldest person to do so.

The 82-year-old pilot volunteered as a member of the "Mercury 13" program, otherwise known as the "Women in Space Program," in February 1961, which was a privately-funded effort intended to begin training women to fly in NASA's earliest space programs, reported CNN.

IMAGE: Blue Origin’s New Shepard crew Oliver Daemen, Jeff Bezos, Wally Funk, and Mark Bezos pose for a picture after flying into space in the Blue Origin New Shepard in Van Horn, Texas. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

"I got a hold of NASA four times, and said, 'I want to become an astronaut,' but nobody would take me," Funk said.

"I didn't think I would ever get to go up. Nothing has ever gotten in my way. They say, 'Wally, you're a girl, you can't do that.' I said, 'Guess what, doesn't matter what you are, you can still do it if you want to do it,' and I like to do things that nobody's ever done before."

Funk has extensive experience piloting aircraft, logging over 19,600 flying hours and teaching more than 3,000 people how to fly private and commercial aircraft.

Also making history in the Blue Origin spaceflight was 18-year-old recent high school graduate Oliver Daemen, who became the youngest person to travel to space, reported CNN.

IMAGE: Spectators watch as billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos is launched with three crew members aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket on the world's first unpiloted suborbital flight near Van Horn, Texas. Photograph: Thom Baur/Reuters

Daemen was Blue Origin's first paying customer, and his father, an investor, purchased his ticket.

Daemen replaced a mystery bidder who agreed to pay $28 million for a ticket, but who had to reschedule for a later mission because of "scheduling conflicts."

Earlier this month, Richard Branson became the first person to ride into space aboard a rocket he helped fund -- beating Bezos by nine days.

Source: ANI