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The "New Shepard" rocket on its way to the edge of space
Photo: BLUE ORIGIN / via REUTERS
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos landed safely back on earth after a short excursion into space. The 57-year-old took off on Tuesday on board the “New Shepard” spacecraft of his company Blue Origin from the US state of Texas. On board the first manned space flight of the "New Shepard" were besides Bezos also his brother Mark as well as an 82-year-old former US pilot and an 18-year-old from the Netherlands, whose father gave him the flight.
In total, the fully automated flight took around ten minutes.
After launch, the spacecraft accelerated to more than 3,700 kilometers per hour within two minutes.
Shortly thereafter, the capsule separated from the reusable missile.
Weightlessness set in, the four passengers were briefly allowed to leave their seats and laughter and cheers could be heard.
At its highest point, the capsule reached more than 100 kilometers above the earth before it landed in the west Texas desert, braked by large parachutes.
Around ten days ago, another billionaire, Richard Branson from Britain, took a short excursion into space with his own spaceship - in this case the VSS Unity from Virgin Galactic.
More soon on SPIEGEL.de
hej / dpa