- Title: Bezos' Blue Origin to make history with unpiloted civilian space flight
- Date: 18th July 2021
- Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - OCTOBER 22, 2019) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** BEZOS ON STAGE WITH ASTROPHYSICIST PASCALE EHRENFREUND (SOUNDBITE) (English) AMAZON AND BLUE ORIGIN FOUNDER, JEFF BEZOS, SAYING: "We're going back to the moon and we're not going back to the moon to visit. We're going back to the moon to stay." WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - MARCH 7, 2017) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE)(English) AMAZON AND BLUE ORIGIN FOUNDER, JEFF BEZOS, SAYING: "The most important thing is to be customer-obsessed. So, don't satisfy your customers figure out how to absolutely delight them. That is the number one thing, whoever your customers are." WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - NOVEMBER 17, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BEZOS AND SON PRESTON BEZOS POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - MARCH 7, 2017) (REUTERS) BEZOS TALKING IN A CROWD WITH PHOTOGRAPHERS TAKING PICTURES
- Embargoed: 1st August 2021 15:05
- Keywords: Amazon Blue Origin Jeff Bezos founder passenger space trip
- Location: INTERNET/ IN SPACE/ UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS/ COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, NEAR VAN HORN, TEXAS, WASHINGTON, D.C. AND BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- City: INTERNET/ IN SPACE/ UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS/ COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, NEAR VAN HORN, TEXAS, WASHINGTON, D.C. AND BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Science,Space Exploration,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA004EM3Y05J
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Jeff Bezos may have been beaten to space by rival Richard Branson, but the billionaire American businessman is poised to make history next week aboard what would be the world's first unpiloted suborbital flight with an all-civilian crew.
Bezos, the former CEO of Amazon.com Inc, is due to be part of a four-person crew for a planned 11-minute ride to the edge of space on Tuesday (July 20) inside his company Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft, another milestone in the nascent and potentially lucrative space tourism sector.
He is set to be joined by his brother and private equity executive Mark Bezos, trailblazing octogenarian woman aviator Wally Funk and an as-yet-unidentified person who paid $28 million for a spot aboard the spacecraft, scheduled to launch from a West Texas site.
New Shepard is a 60-foot-tall (18.3-meters-tall) and fully autonomous rocket-and-capsule combo that cannot be piloted from inside the spacecraft. The crew is set to include only civilians and none of Blue Origin's employees or staff astronauts, three people familiar with the company's plans told Reuters.
Blue Origin's astronauts include NASA space shuttle veteran Nicholas Patrick.
"To see the Earth from space, it changes you, it changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity," Bezos said in a video last month discussing the flight.
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