Jeff Bezos, the founder of the Amazon retail empire on Earth, dreamed of touching the stars ever since he was five years old. From starting an online bookstore to establishing the biggest e-commerce giant, Amazon, Jeff Bezos had an amazing journey. On Jul 11, 2021, he went on to fulfil his childhood dream of a journey into space.
Wearing a cowboy hat under the West Texas blazing sun, Jeff Bezos, along with three other crew members, his brother Mark Bezos, female aviation pioneer Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, blasted off into suborbital space in the New Shepard.
New Shepard, built by Bezos’ company Blue Origin, is designed to serve the booming market for space tourism. New Shepard is a capsule with the biggest windows flown till now into space to offer stunning views of the Earth. The journey lasted for 10 minutes and 10 seconds. Bezos was beaming as he stepped out of the capsule and said, “Best Day Ever.”
While the flight set off the controversy as a billionaire’s race into space, it is of significant importance as an effort to find alternatives for mankind caught in climate change and increasing pollution levels. There is no denying that Bezos scripted history with his blast into space.
There is more than truth in Carl Sagan’s saying – “All civilizations either become spacefaring or extinct.”
