Jeff Bezos is the first person to launch into space aboard the New Shepard rocket ship!

Billionaire Jeff Bezos has launched his rocket spaceship, New Shepard, into orbit for the first time with a crew. Mark Bezos was brought by his brother, Wally Funk, an 82-year-old space expert, and an 18-year-old student.

The New Shepard spacecraft, created by Bezos’ company Blue Origin, is aimed at the expanding space tourism business. Mr. Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and other “billionaire space race” competitors have been chastised for providing what some regard as fun rides for the super-rich.

Critics believe that the money may be better spent on raising employee pay or combating climate change. On the other hand, Mr. Bezos claims to have a green vision: “We need to transfer all heavy industry, all polluting industry into space and keep Earth as this lovely gem of a world that it is,” he told MSNBC. (It is a New York City-based American news-based pay television cable channel, the NBCUniversal News Group subsidiary of NBCUniversal owns it.)

Nevertheless, Oliver Daemen, the son of a Dutch investor, had bought seats for the second flight and was flown over to save an anonymous public auction winner who had to postpone his vacation with Bezos. The capsule reached a maximum height of approximately 107 kilometers (351,210 feet) before parachuting down to a safe landing in the West Texas desert.

Source: BBC News