‘Road to space’: billionaire Bezos has successful suborbital jaunt
Summary 10-minute trip was first crewed Blue Origin space flight
World’s oldest and youngest space voyagers were aboard
Bezos says company nears $100 million in private sales
VAN HORN, Texas, July 20 (Reuters) - Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, soared some 66.5 miles (107 km) above the Texas desert aboard his company Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch vehicle on Tuesday and returned safely to Earth, a historic suborbital flight that helps usher in a new era of space tourism.
“Best day ever,” Bezos, accompanied by three crewmates including the world’s oldest and youngest space travelers, said after his capsule descended with three large parachutes and touched down, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The 57-year-old American billionaire, donning a blue flight suit and cowboy hat, took a trip to the edge of space lasting 10 minutes and 10 seconds. After landing, Bezos and his crewmates exchanged hugs and popped champagne while roughly two dozen family members and company employees cheered.
“Astronaut Bezos in my seat - happy, happy, happy,” Bezos told mission control during a safety check after the passengers buckled back in following a few minutes of weightlessness in space.
The fully autonomous 60-foot-tall (18.3-meters-tall) gleaming white spacecraft, with a feather design on its side, ignited its BE-3 engine for a vertical liftoff from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One facility about 20 miles (32 km) outside the rural town of Van Horn under mostly clear skies.
Bezos, founder of ecommerce company Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), and his brother Mark Bezos, a private equity executive, were joined by two others. Pioneering woman aviator Wally Funk, 82, and recent high school graduate Oliver Daemen, 18, became the oldest and youngest people to reach space.
“I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all of this,” Bezos told reporters afterward.
The flight came nine days after Briton Richard Branson was aboard his competing space tourism venture Virgin Galactic’s successful inaugural suborbital flight from New Mexico. The two flights give credibility and inject enthusiasm into the fledgling commercial space tourism industry, which Swiss bank UBS estimates will be worth $3 billion annually in a decade.
Bezos, who founded Blue Origin in 2000, said this first crewed space flight was a step toward developing a fleet of reusable spacecraft.
“We’re going to build a road to space so that our kids and their kids can build a future,” Bezos added. “… We need to do that to solve the problems here on Earth.”
Blue Origin plans for two more New Shepard passenger flights this year. Bezos said Blue Origin has not determined its pace of flights after that but is approaching $100 million in private sales.
“The demand is very, very high,” Bezos said, adding: “Big things start small.”
1/11 Billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos and pioneering female aviator Wally Funk emerge from their capsule after their flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket on the world’s first unpiloted suborbital flight near Van Horn, Texas, U.S., July 20, 2021 in a still image from video. Blue Origin/Handout via REUTERS. Read More
Bezos said his company is working “ferociously” toward being able to reuse New Shepard vehicles at least 100 times. The one used on Tuesday, twice previously flown to space, scored a bulls-eye landing on a nearby pad.
BACK FLIPS AND SKITTLES
New Shepard hurtled at speeds reaching 2,233 miles (3,595 km) per hour, exceeding the “Kármán line” - 62 miles (100 km) - set by an international aeronautics body to define the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space.
After the capsule separated from the booster, the crew unbuckled, performing back flips and tossing each other Skittles candy in weightlessness. The capsule then returned to Earth with parachutes, using a retro-thrust system expelling a “pillow of air” for a soft landing.
The launch represented another step in the fierce competition to forge a space tourism sector. In this “billionaire space race,” Branson pierced Earth’s atmosphere first, reaching an altitude of 53 miles (86 km) aboard his rocket-powered, pilot-flown spaceplane. Bezos flew higher in what experts called the world’s first unpiloted space flight with an all-civilian crew.
Another billionaire tech mogul, Elon Musk, plans to send an all-civilian crew on a several-day orbital mission on his Crew Dragon capsule in September.
“Well done,” Branson wrote on Twitter, congratulating Bezos and his crewmates.
Musk earlier wished Blue Origin’s crew “best of luck.”
The flight came on the 52nd anniversary of Americans Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin becoming the first humans to walk on the moon. New Shepard’s namesake Alan Shepard in 1961 became the first American in space.
Funk was one of the so-called Mercury 13 group of women who trained to become NASA astronauts in the 1960s but was passed over because of her gender.
“I’ve been waiting a long time,” Funk said afterward. “I want to go again - fast.”
Daemen, Blue Origin’s first paying customer, is set to study physics and innovation management at college in the Netherlands. His investment executive father embraced him after he emerged from the capsule.
“The most profound piece of it for me was looking out at the Earth and looking at the Earth’s atmosphere,” Bezos said, noting how the experience underscored the planet’s beauty and fragility.
Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Van Horn, Texas; Additional reporting Radhika Anilkumar; Editing by Will Dunham
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS: A heavyweight enters the ring with finesse
““e enjoyed the EQS far more when not bothering with figuring out if it could keep up with a Tesla on a drag strip. The sedan is vault-quiet and pours itself down the road in well-isolated comfort. The 580 has a sensation of being heftier — indeed, it weighs just shy of 300 pounds more than the single-motor 450+, with a chunk of that mass added to the front end by the additional motor. Both EQSs ride on Mercedes-Benz’s magic-carpet-ride air suspension, with adaptive dampers that firmed up just a smidge when the drive mode selector is flicked to Sport.
“Comfort aside, the EQS delivers some genuine steps forward in EV development. Take the brake system, for example. As in other EVs, it manages the electric motors' regenerative braking, using resistance from the motor(s) to slow the vehicle and recapture energy that otherwise would be lost and sending it back to the battery. Also as in other EVs, below a certain speed or above a given braking threshold (such as in an emergency), the system switches over to engage the mechanical disc brakes at all four corners.
“Benz’s engineers found an elegant solution to the sometimes odd switchover between electronic and mechanical braking (which can engage even by lifting one’s foot off the accelerator): The brake pedal moves itself to match the level of regenerative braking in effect when your foot isn’t on it.
“This ghost-in-the-machine movement ensures that, even in the EQS’s most aggressive regenerative setting, as the vehicle slows, the pedal is located in a position equivalent to that braking force — so that when you put your foot on it to bring the EQS to a complete stop, you needn’t push through false travel to match the computer’s braking up to that point. The result is ultra-smooth deceleration, no matter when you physically get involved; the switchover between the electric and mechanical brakes is seamless.”
— Alexander Stoklosa, Road and Track
ENTREPRENEUR BILLIONAIRES: The Difference that makes the Difference
Simple yet powerful traits of Billionaires. Billionaires: Doesn’t this word light up a million bulbs in your head? isn’t it magnetic and denotes power? wealth? achievement?
A zenith of successful entrepreneurs! How does this happen? is it random?
Is it a result of sheer serendipity or is it meticulous planning? Here are the 500 richest people on the planet, as of 2021. A hardworking individual’s relentless pursuit, or the handy work of the frontal cortex and the amazing powers of the human brain, let us look at some traits that make a BILLIONAIRE!
Self Confidence – there is nothing more powerful than a self-confident entrepreneur. This self-confidence translates into a strong belief which in turn fuels the ambition of the Entrepreneur and enables him to succeed and achieve the goals and objectives which may otherwise seem unimaginable to millions. Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk are some examples of self-confident super achievers. Indefatigable Spirit – the ability to work relentlessly, tirelessly, and assiduously is an important trait of all successful billionaires. It is said that success comes to those who stay around. Perseverance and persistence are the names of the game for a true blue entrepreneur, who has his eyes on winning and is ready to pursue, persist and win! An insatiable appetite for success – The ability to think BIG and not rest on your laurels; The utter lack of complacency and an insatiable appetite to succeed are the traits that are a sure shot recipe for being a highly successful entrepreneur. Patience – A key aspect to ultimately win is to have patience – Losing a few battles but finally winning the war! Resilience is a quality that the billionaires have proved time and again as being one of the most important traits that makes success bow down to you. Ability to manage the machinations of fellow human beings – Humans have complicated minds, they are emotional beings. Most billionaire entrepreneurs have a special ability to manage and channel both – the “good” and the “bad” in people and are adept at building winning teams of thousands of people. This makes a grand scale possible. Large projects across continents can be driven and achieved by understanding the machinations of human beings. Being on top of the game – Know your business, your abilities, every nuance, and aspect of your business. Be flexible, dynamic, and have the ability to learn new concepts, adapt, and apply them quickly- This is a trait that is a game-changer in the entrepreneur’s journey to success. Courage – The courage to own up not just your successes but your failures as well, just as Ernest Hemingway aptly puts it- Courage is ” Grace under Pressure “. The courage and boldness in both the thoughts and action is a trait most successful entrepreneurs have always demonstrated. Communication skills – to express your thoughts, to lead people, to inspire them to believe in your vision, to communicate to your peers, employees, shareholders, and society at large, is an essential skill for the BIG boys. A commonly found trait of Billionaires is their ability to communicate powerfully and effectively. Health consciousness – A healthy body leads to a positive mind. An immensely important trait for the billion-dollar club is their fitness regimen, which enables them to work long hours, travel across the globe, think fast, and bust the stress of the day to day activities. Being healthy and fit is as important as any other aspect of being successful in business. Philanthropy and altruism – nothing completes a successful business and a billionaire’s life unless he gives back to the society he lives in! The ability to create impact and the feeling of satisfaction as you put your head to the pillow, thinking that you have made a difference, reigns supreme for any billionaire businessman or businesswoman, and he or she ever aspires to leave their smudgy footprints on the pages of history.
Keep winning, keep shining and soar high! Life beckons you!
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Written by Iftekhar Pathan.