When it comes to Jeff Bezos, people generally think of descriptive words such as "world’s richest man" and "Amazon founder", but it is difficult to associate this rich man with aerospace events at the first time. But in fact, Jeff Bezos is also a space fan. He not only founded a commercial space company called "Blue Origin" in 2000, but also personally took a spacecraft named "New Shepard" in July 2021, successfully "punched in" the Karman line (the recognized starting point of outer space), and successfully opened the curtain of the era for commercial space travel.
Jeff Bezos’s wish at the age of 14 was to be an astronaut or a physicist. His grandfather, a former manager of the Atomic Energy Commission, cultivated Jeff Bezos’s passion for science. At the age of 18, Jeff Bezos said in his high school graduation farewell speech that he would build space hotels, amusement parks, etc. for millions of people in the Earth orbit, with the goal of moving some humans to space and turning the Earth into a park...
Although the storm of computer industry changes attracted Jeff Bezos when he was studying at Princeton University, and diverted his attention, making him "into computers", Jeff Bezos did not give up his deep desire for space. After Amazon’s business was successful, Jeff Bezos, who had a huge fortune, couldn’t wait to pursue his space dream, founded Blue Origin, and started his journey of space exploration. Moreover, the goal of this company is Jeff Bezos’s wish when he was in high school-to be committed to allowing tens of thousands of people to live in space,
Researching spacecraft and rocket engines that fly to space is both expensive and prone to failure. After all, going to space is not an easy task. Jeff Bezos is still relatively low-key. It is said that the principle of confidentiality has always been the core principle of Blue Origin. From 2000 to 2020, Blue Origin has been quietly designing and researching its own rockets. It is reported that from its establishment until 2016, the company’s billions of dollars in operating expenses have been provided by Jeff Bezos himself. Jeff Bezos’ obsession with space exploration is evident.
Years of hard work finally paid off. In July 2021, Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket carried out its first manned launch, successfully sending Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark Bezos to an altitude of more than 100 kilometers and returning safely, along with the oldest and youngest space tourists: 82-year-old female pilot Wally Fink and 18-year-old Dutch student Oliver Daemen. This was Blue Origin’s first manned flight, which took about 11 minutes.
In September 2022, when the New Shepard rocket was launched with 33 experimental instruments, the rocket spewed fire and caused the launch to fail. Prior to this, the New Shepard rocket had successfully completed 22 launches in a row, including 6 manned missions. But failure did not stop Bezos. On December 20, 2023, the New Shepard rocket successfully resumed flight after a 15-month mission suspension, and once again completed a suborbital flight carrying 33 scientific payloads. However, Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin have not yet revealed when to resume manned flights.
In May 2023, Blue Origin also won a $3.4 billion lunar lander contract.
Although Jeff Bezos still has a long way to go to realize his space dream, it is certain that he will not give up his ambition to explore space.
