▲ Jeff Bezos (second from left),
his brother Mark Bezos,
and
his companions Oliver Damon and Wally Funk in space
Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man and founder of Amazon, has succeeded in space tourism.
It's been nine days since British billionaire Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group, successfully flew a space tourism test flight.
Bezos returned safely to Earth after a 10-minute space flight aboard the 'New Shepard' rocket from the desert launch base in western Texas, USA.
Bezos flew to an altitude of more than 100 km, the edge of the universe, and experienced microgravity near zero gravity for a few minutes.
It flew higher than Branson, who reached an altitude of 86 km on the 11th.
Bezos flew into space with his brother Mark, his 82-year-old grandmother Wally Funk and 18-year-old Dutchman Oliver Damon.
Punk is one of the so-called '13 Mercury Women' who passed NASA's astronaut test in the 1960s, but failed to fly because of being a woman.
Damon, who will study physics and more at a Dutch university starting this fall, is Blue Origin's first paying customer.
As Bezos and his crew succeeded in space travel, the richest, oldest and youngest astronauts were born at the same time.
The 'New Shepard' rocket, which Bezos and others boarded, is a recycled rocket developed by 'Blue Origin', a space exploration company.
(Photo = Blue Origin Twitter capture, Yonhap News)