Jeff Bezos has flown to space!
Following hot on the heels of Richard Branson's space flight last weekend, the billionaire Amazon founder, 57, was joined by three others in the first crewed flight of his rocket ship, New Shepard.
The foursome have successfully landed back on Earth following their 10-minute-30-second-long trip.
After a slight delay, lift-off occurred at 09:12AM (ET).
Bezos' brother Mark, Wally Funk, an 82-year-old pioneer of the space race, and 18-year-old student Oliver Daemen were all aboard the rocket that left lift-off from West Texas.
"Congratulations to all of Team Blue past and present on reaching this historic moment in spaceflight history," Blue Origin wrote on Twitter.
"This first astronaut crew wrote themselves into the history books of space, opening the door through which many after will pass. #GradatimFerociter #NSFirstHumanFlight."
They traveled in a capsule with the biggest windows flown into space, and Blue Origin predicted stunning views of the Earth were seen by the foursome.
The capsule separated from its booster around 250,000ft up.
The rocket landed on its "legs" about 2 miles from the launch pad, while the capsule continued upwards to an altitude of around 350,000ft, per BBC.
"We're in zero-g for around four minutes, and we get to get out of our seats, unstrap, float around, look at the thin limb of the Earth's atmosphere," Bezos told CBS News.
"The views are going to be terrific, the zero-g will be an unusual experience that you really can't get in any good way on Earth."
After reaching its maximum altitude, the capsule will then begin its descent, parachuting down to a soft landing in the desert.
It comes as Bezos met with his Blue Origin crewmates 24 hours before their scheduled lift-off on July 19.
Bezos shared a number of images and videos of himself socializing with the crew on his official Instagram.
Uploading a picture of himself, his brother Mark, and his fellow passengers Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen, Bezos wrote to his 3 million followers on the platform:
"Had a great dinner with the crew last night. West Texas is beautiful!"
Bezos also shared a video of himself interacting with the crew, showing them training in preparation for their July 20 launch, and wrote: "We've been practicing full missions in New Shepard’s training simulator. Can't wait for liftoff."
Funk, aged 82, was one of the so-called 'Mercury 13', a group of women who received privately funded astronaut training in the 1960s, but who were ultimately prevented from ever doing into space.
She made aviation history by becoming the first female US military flight instructor and the first female air safety investigator for the National Transport Safety Board.
Meanwhile, Daemen joined the crew when the former winner of an auction for a place on the flight was forced to drop out due to prior commitments.
At 18 years old, he is the youngest person to ever travel into space.
Commenting on his cosmic initiative in an interview with CNN, Bezos stated: "We'll be building a road to space for the next generation to do amazing things and those amazing things will improve things here on earth."
He continued: "I could have done this flight as CEO of Amazon and it would have been fine. We really believe this flight is safe. I did have friends say: 'why not wait for the second or third flight, why do you have to go now?'
"But we know the vehicle is safe and if it's not safe for me then it's not safe for anyone. But we've taken this one step at a time, our mascot is the tortoise... we are ready."
