This morning Jeff Bezos, soon-to-be-former CEO and founder of Amazon, has announced he will be blasting into space by joining his aerospace company, Blue Origin’s first human flight next month. Bezos is, according to Forbes, the richest person in the world so he will be by far the richest person to ever go into space, ahead of other billionaires such as Elon Musk, who, while he has sent out multiple human flights from his company Space X, has yet to actually go to space himself.
57-year old Bezos said he has been dreaming of going into space since he was 5 years old, and also announced he will be bringing his brother, investor, and volunteer firefighter, Mark Bezos with him. The brothers will be launching from a remote location in West Texas along with an online charity auction winner, making up half of the 6-person flight. It is unclear who will fill the other half.
After 15 successful test flights using reusable rockets, Blue Origin will have its debut human flight scheduled for July 20th, on the 52nd anniversary of the first moon landing by Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. It will also take place 15 days after Bezos will step down as CEO of Amazon, as he announced months ago to focus more on Blue Origins and his newspaper, The Washington Post.
Blue Origins has named the capsule that is going to take Bezos into space, “New Shepard,” after Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space via a Mercury Capsule in 1961. Blue Origin’s capsule is said to be 10x roomier as well as have a huge window at every seat, the biggest of any aircraft. Bezos posted on Instagram saying “To see the Earth from space, it changes you. It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity. It’s one Earth.”