Jeff Bezos is heading to space, and he's bringing his brother
That's one small step for Bezos...
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced Monday he'll be flying to space this summer on the first human flight of his company Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket ship, CNN reports. Bezos will be joined by his brother, Mark Bezos, on the flight that's set for July 20.
"I want to go on this flight because it's the thing I've wanted to do all my life," Bezos said in a video on Instagram. "It's an adventure. It's a big deal for me."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Amazon chief executive said he invited his brother "because we're closest friends," and Mark Bezos in the Instagram video described going on the flight as a "remarkable opportunity." The New Shepard can carry six passengers, and bidding for a seat on the July flight is underway, with the current highest bid being $2.8 million. During the flight, "the capsule carrying the passengers will separate from its booster" at about 250,000 feet, and "soon after, the astronauts will get to unbuckle and experience weightlessness for about three minutes before returning to earth," The New York Times previously reported.
"New Shepard has flown 15 successful consecutive missions to space and back above the Kármán Line through a meticulous and incremental flight program to test its multiple redundant safety systems," Blue Origin said in May. "Now, it's time for astronauts to climb onboard."
This flight will take place 15 days after Bezos officially steps down as Amazon's CEO, and he's now set to become the "first of the billionaire space tycoons to experience a ride aboard the rocket technology that he's poured millions into developing," CNN writes — notably meaning he'll be getting to space before SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
-
US won its war on 'murder hornets,' officials say
Speed Read The announcement comes five years after the hornets were first spotted in the US
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Dark energy data suggest Einstein was right
Speed Read Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity has been proven correct, according to data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New DNA tests of Pompeii dead upend popular stories
Speed Read An analysis of skeletal remains reveals that some Mount Vesuvius victims have been wrongly identified
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
NASA's Europa Clipper blasts off, seeking an ocean
Speed Read The ship is headed toward Jupiter on a yearslong journey
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Detailed map of fly's brain holds clues to human mind
Speed Read This remarkable fruit fly brain analysis will aid in future human brain research
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Blind people will listen to next week's total eclipse
Speed Read While they can't see the event, they can hear it with a device that translates the sky's brightness into music
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeeping
Speed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
An amphibian that produces milk?
speed read Caecilians, worm-like amphibians that live underground, produce a milk-like substance for their hatchlings
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published