Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, thanked his employees and customers on Tuesday for subsidizing his Blue Origin spaceflight, during which he and three others spent 11 minutes inside the “New Shepard” capsule after lifting off from the desert in Van Horn County, Texas.
“[I] want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this. So seriously, for every Amazon customer out there, and every Amazon employee, thank you from the bottom of my heart, very much. It’s very appreciated,” said a cowboy hat-sporting Bezos upon returning to Earth with his fellow passengers, younger brother Mark Bezos; aviation pioneer Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk, 82, and Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen.
Jeff Bezos at #BlueOrigin news conference:
“I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this — Thank you from the bottom of my heart very much.”pic.twitter.com/ZrWf6nuB7Y
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 20, 2021
The New Shepard, named for Alan Shepard, the first American in space, took off on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and the automated capsule reached an altitude of about 66 miles, more than 10 miles higher than Virgin founder Richard Branson’s July 11 ride. The 60-foot (18-meter) booster accelerated to Mach 3 or three times the speed of sound to get the capsule high enough, before separating and landing upright.
The only problem I have with Bezos’ Blue Origin space rocket ship into outer space is that it’s going to come back.
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) July 20, 2021
Upon his return to terra firma, Bezos was roasted by critics for his comments thanking customers for the reported $5.5 billion cost of the Blue Origin endeavor.’ – READ MORE
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