Gossip Whiz
Jeff Bezos will be flying to space on the first crewed flight of the New Shepard, in a rocket made by his space company, Blue Origin.
The plan they devised is for Bezos, his brother, Mark, as well as the winner of the online auction for Blue Origin’s non-profit organization. On July 20, the rocket will lift off for a suborbital flight, the first time the spacecraft will carry passengers.
“If you see the earth from space, it changes you. It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity. It’s one earth,” Bezos also said in a video he posted on his Instagram profile on Monday.
“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space,” Bezos, 57, said in a Monday morning Instagram post. “On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend.”
If all goes smoothly and according to plan, Jeff Bezos will be the first of the billionaire space tycoons to experience a ride aboard the rocket technology that he’s poured millions into developing. New Shepard, a rocket ship, is reusable – the idea being that reusing rockets will lower the cost of going to space and make it more accessible.
Bezos is set to leave in July
The flight is scheduled for July 20, which marks the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. Bezos relinquishes his title of CEO on July 5, when Andy Jassy will take over the title.
For a long time, Jeff has been obsessed and fascinated by space. He was a big Star Trek fan as a kid. He said watching the Apollo 11 was a “seminal” moment for him, even though he was just five years old at the time.
Bezos ended his Instagram post with Blue Origin’s Latin motto, gradatim ferociter – which the company translates as “step by step ferociously.”
