Jeff Bezos has done it, folks: “Best day ever!” says capitalist titan after he rockets to space

Today was the day for Jeff Bezos.

The Amazon founder is the latest billionaire to go into space. Aboard a rocket engineered by his own Blue Origin private aerospace firm, Bezos and his small crew blasted off at 8 a.m. local time from the launchpad in West Texas.

“Woo!!!”

The exclamations of Bezos and his fellow space tourists (Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daeman) through the choppy audio feed will serve as the best sort of advertisement to anybody who wants to take a brief trip to the Kármán line, aka the border between Earth and space, where there's no gravity. Just as had occurred in many test flights before over the years, the rocket booster landed back on Earth on its landing pad with slow assurance from its reverse thrusters.

"You have a very happy crew up here I want you to know," Bezos said, as the capsule dropped toward the Earth at more than 200 mph before its three parachutes bloomed for a soft landing on the Texas dirt:

“Best day ever!” Bezos exclaimed once the capsule landed on Earth after traveling to an apogee of 351,210 feet.

“That was only about five minutes!” exclaimed Funk, age 82, who waited more than 60 years to go to space. Funk perhaps offered the biggest downside to what’s likely to be a very expensive, very short trip for any future Blue Origin customers.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, warming is making heatwaves more deadly.

Here’s everything you need to know about this historic event. Richard Branson, another billionaire, made his own trip to the edge of space earlier this month, aboard his own craft, engineered by his own company. (These billionaires and their space!)

How did Bezos get to this point? We’ve run down the timeline of 10 moments that led to this day. As for Elon Musk, he’s got a ticket aboard Branson’s spacecraft and is offering backhanded compliments to Bezos. Never change, Elon. On second thought, maybe do change.

I’m Nick Lucchesi, editor-in-chief at Inverse, and this is Inverse Daily. The Inverse mission is to share big ideas about science and innovation in an entertaining style and look at entertainment and culture with deeply curious methods.

Mailbag — What’s in your apocalypse bag? You know, the backpack you carry when the world ends. Take the anonymous survey here. We’ve had more than 2,700 respondents so far! There are only a few more days to vote, so get in your end-times advice now!

This is an adapted version of the Inverse Daily newsletter for July 20, 2021. Subscribe for free and earn rewards for reading every day in your inbox.

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• Before we go: Sandra Oh (50; pictured above), Carlos Santana (74), Gisele Bundchen (41), Jaclyn Hill (31), Omar Epps (48) (Source: AP.)