Jeff Bezos not very nervous for upcoming Blue Origin spaceflight, expresses excitement

"I'm not really nervous, I'm excited," said the world's richest person Jeff Bezos on July 19 regarding him taking part in his company Blue Origin’s first crewed suborbital flight, along with the youngest and oldest people ever to be bound for space. However, the Amazon founder also noted that he keeps getting asked about his nervousness over the July 20 mission. Bezos and three other crewmates are set to fly from a remote site in West Texas on an 11-minute trip to the edge of the space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard. 

New Shepard is a 60-foot-tall, or 18.3-meter-long, fully autonomous rocket-and-capsule combo developed by Bezos’ Blue Origin. The July 20 flight marks a major milestone in the space tourism industry, and ahead of the historic mission, Bezos did a round of television interviews before the launch scheduled for 8 AM CDT (1300 GMT) around 20 miles (32 km) outside the rural Texas town of Van Horn.

Blue Origin founder told CBS program, “People keep asking if I'm nervous. I'm not really nervous, I'm excited. I'm curious. I want to know what we're going to learn.”

"We've been training. This vehicle is ready. This crew is ready. This team is amazing," Bezos said. "We just feel really good about it."

All about Blue Origin’s upcoming flight

American Billionaire Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark Bezos will be joined in the all-civilian crew by an 82-year-old pioneering female aviator Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen. The youngest person bound for space is a recent high school graduate set to attend the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands to study physics and innovation management in September. Blue Origin had announced earlier this month that Daeman is the company’s first paying customer and his father heads investment management firm Somerset Capital Partners.

A total of four passengers will be taken beyond the Karman Line, which is around 100 kilometres above Earth where they will be able to witness the Earth before landing back on the blue planet. The first space tourists being sent by Blue Origin are reportedly engaged in final preparations for the flight including safety briefings and a simulation of the spaceflight, review of the rocket along with its other operations. Blue Origin said in a statement, “The training will help you feel comfortable and prepared for spaceflight and your responsibilities as an astronaut.” 

While the flight would last just over 10 minutes, Flight Director Steve Lanius said, "We are not currently working any open issues and New Shepard is ready to fly." On July 18, Bezos and his all civilian crewmates had kickstarted the 14-hour program as they got ready to “experience the flight of a lifetime.” The New Shepard spacecraft is named after Alan Shepard, who became the first American in space in 1961.

IMAGE: AP