Bezos says 'awestruck' by Earth's beauty as seen from space

Jeff Bezos said the "most profound" aspect of his brief journey to space was the spectacular view he saw of Earth, which left him amazed by its beauty and fragility.

"Every astronaut who's been up into space, they say that it changes them ... they look at it and they're kind of amazed and awestruck by the Earth and its beauty, but also by its fragility, and I can vouch for that," he told reporters after Blue Origin's first crewed flight.

He added that while the atmosphere appeared to be "so big" from the surface, when you get above it "you see is it's actually incredibly thin, it's this tiny little fragile thing, and as we move about the planet we're damaging it.

"It's one thing to recognize that intellectually, it's another thing to actually see with your own eyes."

The company released footage of the newly minted astronauts performing somersaults in near zero gravity and throwing Skittles which Dutch teen Oliver Daemen caught in his mouth.

"We had a great time, it was wonderful," added Wally Funk, who at 82 has become the oldest astronaut. "I want to go again -- fast!" she added.

The crew took a number of mementos with them for the 10-minute trip, including a piece of fabric from the Wright brothers' first plane, a bronze medallion made from the first hot air balloon flight in 1783, and a pair of goggles that belonged to Amelia Earhart.

Bezos praised the work of his engineering team and said the design architecture of the New Shepard rocket would eventually be used as the second stage of the much larger New Glenn rocket.

Asked if he would go again, he said: "Hell yes, how fast can we refuel that thing? Let's go."

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After conquering Earth, Bezos completes new mission in space
Washington (AFP) July 20, 2021
Jeff Bezos fulfilled his longtime dream of going into space Tuesday and potentially opening a door to space tourism - possibly the next mission for the man who built one of Earth's biggest business empires. The Amazon founder spent a few minutes in space on reusable rocket built by his firm Blue Origin as part of a four-member crew, in a small step toward his stated goal of building floating space colonies. The journey comes just two weeks after he stepped aside as chief executive of Amazon, wh ... read more