Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Has Launched Into Space

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has launched into space. Watch here:

The 57-year-old has just taken off from Texas, United States, on board his Blue Origin New Shepard rocket in an 11-minute flight to the edge of space.

This is the craft's 16th lift-off, but its first to carry human passengers.

The billionaire has now become the second person to ride his own rocket into space, following Virgin Galactic's Sir Richard Branson by nine days.

Alongside Bezos on the flight is his brother Mark, Wally Funk - one of 13 female pilots who went through the same tests as Nasa's Mercury 7 astronauts in the early 1960s but never made it into space because only men were allowed - and Oliver Daemen.

The latter is an 18-year-old physics student who took the place of a $28 million auction winner who was too busy to make the trip.

Oliver bagged his seat on board the flight as his dad was one of the runners-up in the auction.

How much he paid for the ticket has not been disclosed, but a family spokesperson said it was considerably less than the winning bid.

His father, Dutch financier Joes Daemen, founded private equity firm Somerset Capital Partners.

Joes paid for the ticket, but decided to let his son go instead.

Prior to launch, Oliver said: "I am super excited to go to space.

"I've been dreaming about this all my life and I will become the youngest astronaut ever because I'm 18 years old.

"I am super excited to experience zero G."

He added: "This is so unbelievably cool!

"The flight to and into space only takes 10 minutes, but I already know that these will be the most special 10 minutes of my life."

Bezos has dreamt of flying to space since he was a child, and speaking yesterday (Monday 19 July) he said he was 'ready not nervous'.

"I know it's going to change me and I'm excited to find out how," Bezos told CNN.

"We really believe this flight is safe - I had friends say to me, 'How about the second flight or the third flight, why do you have to go on the first flight?' and the point is that we know the vehicle's safe.

"If the vehicle is not safe for me, it's not safe for anyone. We have never raced. We have taken this one step at a time, we're ready."

Topics: jeff bezos, US News, space, Amazon

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey