Bezos follows Branson into billionaires' space club with Blue Origin flight

WASHINGTON: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, became the planet's wealthiest astronaut on Tuesday, traveling to outer space in his own rocket to mark a new era in private space travel.


Coming nine days after

Virgin Galactic

founder Richard Branson flew on a similar suborbital trajectory, Bezos took with him to outer space his own brother Mark, and the world's oldest and youngest space-farers, on a 10 minutes and 18 seconds journey that established new records.

Wally Funk, 82, who trained as a NASA astronaut in the 1960s but didn't make the launch cut, became the oldest person in space. Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old physics student from the Netherlands whose father paid for his flight, became the youngest. Daemen got on the ride because an unnamed billionaire - who paid $28million for it - dropped out.

A self-confessed space buff who was mesmerized by the

Apollo

11 moon landing, Bezos -- and his crew -- was launched into space in capsule lifted by the

New Shepard

rocket made by his own firm

Blue Origin

, at its facility in West Texas shortly after 9 a.m EST.

After going past the 62-mile height that is considered by many to be where space begins, the capsule reached 351,210 feet altitude — 66.5 miles -- before returning to earth in a journey which lasted 10 minutes and 18 seconds. The passengers spent four minutes floating in zero gravity.

"Best day ever!" Bezos exclaimed on his return to earth popping out of the capsule wearing a cowboy hat.

The back-to-back launches inside ten days by billionaires Branson and Bezos is viewed by some as vanity projects, but many analysts believe it will herald an era of commercial space tourism, including trips to the moon -- for those who can afford it, although costs are expected to drop over the years.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is the third of the troika of companies that are rocket-charging the industry. NASA has chosen SpaceX’s Starship for the first human mission to the moon powered by private enterprise, with Blue Origin also bidding for a piece of the action.

Branson congratulated the Blue Origin crew after their flight, tweeting, "Well done @blueorigin, @jeffbezos, Mark, Wally and Oliver. Impressive! Very best to all the crew from me and all the team at @virgingalactic."
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