The daily business briefing: July 21, 2021

Bezos makes quick space trip in Blue Origin first, Netflix announces plan to start offering video games, and more

The Blue Origin crew
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

1. Bezos makes brief trip to space in first Blue Origin flight with people

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person, took a brief flight into suborbital space Tuesday in a spacecraft developed by his rocket company, Blue Origin. The flight marked the first time Blue Origin's spacecraft, dubbed New Shepard after American space pioneer Alan Shepard, had carried people, a big step toward the company's plans for space tourism. Three others joined Bezos in the capsule: Bezos' brother, Mark; Oliver Daemen, a Dutch student who was Blue Origin's first paying passenger and the youngest person to go to space; and aviator Mary Wallace "Wally" Funk, who at 82 was the oldest person to reach space. "Best day ever," Jeff Bezos said after the capsule had parachuted to the ground in Texas near the launch site.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.