International
oi-Deepika S
Washington, July 20: Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, and three crewmates landed after Blue Origin’s first flight to space with passengers aboard, a key milestone in the company’s effort to make space tourism viable.
The 57-year-old American billionaire flew on a voyage lasting about 10 minutes and 20 seconds to the edge of space, along with his brother Mark, 82-year-old former pilot Wally Funk and 18-year-old teen Oliver Daeman beyond the Karman Line
This comes nine days after Briton Richard Branson was aboard his competing space tourism company Virgin Galactic’s successful inaugural suborbital flight from New Mexico.
Bezos’ dream-come-true trip follows 15 successful test flights to space by New Shepard rockets since 2015, all of them unoccupied. If successful, Blue Origin plans two more passenger flights by year’s end.
The company has yet to open ticket sales to the…