Jeff Bezos had an unexpected tumble into the dirt while attempting to welcome his fiancée and crew members following the Blue Origin space flight.
The founder of Amazon and Blue Origin seemed overly enthusiastic as he greeted the all-female crew and his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, upon their safe return to Earth on Monday morning (April 14).
This significant launch included Sánchez along with five other notable figures: pop star Katy Perry, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, documentary producer Kerianne Flynn, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyễn, and journalist and CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King. They embarked on an 11-minute journey into space.
The launch took place at Launch Site One in West Texas, beginning at 10am EDT.
A live broadcast captured the moment the spacecraft touched down in the Texas desert, humorously showing the 61-year-old Bezos stumbling and falling face-first as he eagerly approached the team.
The second richest individual globally was then seen celebrating with Sánchez, who declared their engagement in May 2023, after she exited the capsule.
Following the heartfelt reunion, Sánchez embraced the rest of her family who were present with Bezos at the landing site.
“I can’t put it into words. We got to see the Moon!” she shared emotionally after the landing. “The Earth looked so quiet… I don’t think you could describe it.”
Her space journey happened as Bezos enjoyed Blue Origin’s inaugural space tourism mission. He had mentioned to his partner that this experience, which was the company’s 11th human flight in its New Shepard program, would be transformative.
The crew reached an altitude of approximately 62 miles, just beyond the Karman Line, which is recognized as the boundary of outer space.
During the flight, the team experienced three minutes of weightlessness within the capsule.
This mission marked the first all-female crew to venture into space since Valentina Tereshkova’s solo orbit by the Soviet Union in 1963, granting the team a view of the vastness of space, the Moon, and Earth.
Katy Perry, another crew member, expressed her intention to ‘100 percent’ create a song inspired by the experience.
The ‘Hot N Cold’ singer, who reportedly sang ‘What a Wonderful Life’ during the descent, said: “I feel super connected to love.”
She took a daisy with her on the flight as a tribute to her daughter, Daisy, saying: “Daisies are common flowers but they grow through any condition. They grow through cement, cracks, walls. They are resilient, they are strong, they are everywhere.
“Flowers, to me, are God’s smile but they are also a reminder of our beautiful Earth. The beautiful magic is everywhere, all around us, even in a simple daisy.”
She also noted a surprising coincidence related to the capsule’s name prior to the launch.
Her mother calls her by the nickname ‘Tortoise’, which was also the name of the capsule, as well as ‘Feather’, which was displayed on the front of the spacecraft.
Billionaire tech CEO Jared Isaacman and President Donald Trump’s nominee for NASA leadership, extended his congratulations to the crew on Twitter.
He said: “Congratulations to Blue Origin and the NS-31 crew. Opening this incredible frontier – from the few to the many – is the dream.”
The New York Post reported that Blue Origin does not publicly reveal the cost of spaceflights, though a seat on its inaugural flight fetched $28 million at auction.