British Billionaire Richard Branson congratulated the world's richest man and Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos for travelling to the edge of the space in his own company Blue Origin's fully automated New Shepard rocket.
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, who himself travelled to space to test the customer experience onboard Virgin Galactic’s spaceship VSS Unity as part of this remarkable crew of mission specialists - and now astronauts, took to Twitter and Congratulated Jeff Bezos and crew saying, "Well done
@blueorigin, @jeffbezos, Mark, Wally and Oliver. Impressive! Very best to all the crew from me and all the team at @virgingalactic."
Was honoured to test the incredible customer experience onboard Virgin Galactic’s spaceship VSS Unity as part of this remarkable crew of mission specialists - and now astronauts, Richard Branson said when during his space flight.
Jeff Bezos launched to the edge of space on Tuesday along with his brother Mark, 82-year-old female aviator Wally Funk and 18-year-old physics student Oliver Daemen, aboard his company Blue Origin's fully automated New Shepard rocket.
New Shepard launched its first human flight, NS-16, from Launch Site One in West Texas at 9 am EDT (6.30 pm IST).
ALSO READ | Three rockets hit near Afghan presidential palace during Eid prayers
The rocket aims to fly beyond the Karman line and the trip will last approximately 11 minutes from launch to capsule landing. Astronauts will experience three to four minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth in their space capsule.
British Billionaire Richard Branson during space travel onboard Virgin Galactic’s spaceship VSS Unity.
What is Karman Line in space travel?
The Karman line, 100 km above the ground, is the internationally recognised boundary of space. The 57-year-old billionaire said that he is not nervous, but excited.
"People keep asking if I'm nervous. I'm not really nervous, I'm excited. I'm curious. I want to know what we're going to learn," Bezos, 57, was quoted as saying in the "CBS This Morning" programme on Tuesday.
"We've been training. This vehicle is ready. This crew is ready. This team is amazing. We just feel really good about it," he added.
First time in history
"Today marks the first time in history that a commercial company will launch a privately-funded and built spacecraft from a private launch range with astronauts on board," Blue Origin shared in a tweet before the launch.
Bezos' flight follows Richard Branson's flight to the edge of space aboard his company Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity on July 11. Branson's flight, however, did not go beyond the Karman Line. It climbed nearly 86 km above the Earth's surface.
"Wishing the entire @blueorigin team a successful and safe flight from all of us," Virgin Galactic said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Bezos' flight is touted as the world's first unpiloted suborbital flight.
What is Blue Origin's Shepard rocket
The five-storey-tall New Shepard rocket, named after the first American in space, Alan Shepard, is designed to launch a crew capsule with seats for six roughly 340,000 feet into the sky toward the edge of space. The booster is topped by a gumdrop-shaped Crew Capsule with space for six passengers inside and large windows.
After reaching the Karman line, the capsule will detach from the booster, allowing those inside to view the curvature of the earth and experience weightlessness. The booster and capsule will then land separately, with the capsule landing in the west Texas desert with the help of parachutes.
ALSO READ | Jeff Bezos blasts off on his space company’s 1st passenger flight
Latest World News
