What we know about Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight

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Nine days after billionaire Richard Branson made history by being the first person to launch himself into space aboard his Virgin Galactic plane, fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos is hoping to do the same on his Blue Origin rocket.

The 57-year-old Amazon founder will climb atop a New Shepard rocket in West Texas on Tuesday, July 20 — the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

It will be the first launch with passengers for Blue Origin, which — like Virgin Galactic and Branson’s SpaceX — plans to start flying for paying customers in the coming months.

Who travels with Bezos?

Bezos will be joined by his younger brother Mark; Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk, 82-year-old pilot; and Oliver Damon, 18, the son of the CEO of a private equity investment firm and a runner-up at a $28 million charity auction for the mission’s final seat. (Bezos announced that the winner, as yet unknown, has a “scheduling conflict” and will travel on a later trip.)

While Branson’s Virgin Galactic was the first in space, the Blue Origin flight will include the youngest (Daemen), oldest (Funk) and richest (Bezos) people who made the trip.

And Bezos will rise, too.

Jeff Bezos in front of a New Shepard rocket from Blue Origin in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2017 (Isaiah J. Downing/Reuters)

Branson’s space plane reached an altitude of 53.5 miles on its flight on July 9. The Bezos rocket intends to fly over the so-called Karman Line at an altitude of 62 miles above Earth, which some international aviation and space experts regard as the beginning of space. (NASA, the Air Force, and the Federal Aviation Administration consider the boundary between the atmosphere and space to begin at an altitude of 50 miles.)

And, like Branson’s trip, Bezos’ trip into space will be short. It is expected to take only 10 minutes – which could disappoint the 160,000 people who signed a petition demanding that Bezos not be allowed to return to Earth.

What is the launch date?

Yahoo News will broadcast a live broadcast of the Blue Origin space flight on Tuesday, July 20. Coverage begins at 7:30 a.m. ET, and the launch is scheduled for 9 a.m. ET.

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