'Peak richest man in the world': Twitter reacts to Jeff Bezos' flight

‘Peak richest man in the world’: Social media goes wild as Jeff Bezos puts on a cowboy hat and pops champagne minutes after landing back to Earth having successfully launched to space

  • Amazon founder Jeff Bezos enjoyed a short jaunt into space on Tuesday morning
  • He jetted off with four crew mates and touched down 10 minutes later in Texas
  • But social media users have slammed the billionaire for his ‘pointless’ excursion 

Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, successfully touched back down to Earth on Tuesday after jetting into space on board New Shepard rocket.

Bezos travelled on the exclusive flight with his brother Mark, Dutch 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, who became the youngest person in space, and former NASA trainee Wally Funk, 82, who became the oldest.   

On landing after the 11 minute trip, Bezos described it as the ‘best day ever’ and randomly put on a cowboy hat the second he exited the capsule before popping champagne corks. 

Now, social media users have taken a swipe at the billionaire, who has a personal wealth of more than $200 billion (£147 billion), according to Forbes. 

Many pointed out the highly suggestive shape of the New Shepard rocket and the demonstrable gulf of wealth that exists between Bezos and Amazon staff.  

Jeff Bezos (right) celebrates after exiting Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard craft capsule returned from space, safely landing on July 20, 2021

As the crew exited the capsule they celebrated with family and friends, marking a ‘historic moment’ in commercial spaceflight

Twitter user @Jessie_Coffield said: ‘Jeff Bezos immediately putting on a cowboy hat and popping champagne after getting off his spaceship is peak richest man in the world.’

Another user, @McJesse, tweeted shots from the 1999 film Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me with the words: ‘The entire internet watching Jeff Bezos fly into space.’

The film features a memorable sequence centred around antagonist Dr Evil’s penis-shaped rocket, which bears an uncanny resemblance to New Shepard.  

Image shows the New Shepard rocket – and it’s suggestive shape – on its launch pad in Van Horn, Texas prior to the launch on Tuesday

One user, @McJesse, tweeted shots from the 1999 film Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me with the words: ‘The entire internet watching Jeff Bezos fly into space

‘Overcompensating for something’? Another Twitter user drew comparisons between Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and a part of the male anatomy 

Another user, going by the handle @MajorPhilebrity, said: ‘Jeff Bezos spent more time in space that Amazon allowed in bathroom breaks last year’.

Amazon previously rubbished suggestions that staff are denied bathroom breaks and have to do their business in bags so they have enough time to reach their performance targets. 

And @beerguypdx tweeted: ‘Turns out Jeff Bezos wanted to go [to] space just so he could keep an eye on ALL of his employees’ bathroom breaks at the same time.’ 

Another bleak post simply said: ‘Jeff Bezos made it back to Earth? Day ruined.’

The journey from launch to landing only took 10 minutes and 20 seconds – leading many to question why Bezos even bothered.

Clearly unimpressed, Twitter user @FGR_Adam posted: ‘Why is Jeff Bezos and the crew celebrating like they just discovered a new planet? Bro you went up for a few minutes and came back down. chill.’ 

Another said Bezos ‘went to space and back before I could make coffee today’.  

 

Clearly unimpressed, Twitter user @FGR_Adam posted: ‘Why is Jeff Bezos and the crew celebrating like they just discovered a new planet? Bro you went up for a few minutes and cmae back down. chill.’

Bezos reached 13 miles higher than billionaire rival Sir Richard Branson who flew to space during his own manned test flight on July 11. 

But the Amazon founder went above the Karman Line, the 62-mile mark that is internationally recognised as the boundary of space. 

Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Elon Musk is planning a manned test flight, too, and he’ll be using one of Sir Richard Branson’s rockets. 

Just like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic (led by and Sir Richard Branson and Elon Musk), Blue Origin envisages an era where members of the public pay exorbitant amounts for a holiday in space – a phenomenon frequently dubbed ‘space tourism’. 

Blue Origin – founded by Bezos in 2000 in Kent, Washington, near Amazon’s Seattle headquarters – hasn’t recently estimated a price for a ride to space.

Pictured, Jeff Bezos, whose company Blue Origin want to send paying travellers to the edge of space and beyond 

Blue Origin said in 2018 that it was planning to charge passengers at least $200,000 for a ride to space aboard its rocket, but this may have increased.   

In the age of climate change and and a viral pandemic, some believe there are more important issues that jetting off on luxury space flights.

Writing for MailOnline at the weekend, broadcaster John Humphrys said: ‘Let’s try to swallow our envy that billionaires get to cruise the cosmos while most of us can’t even manage a week in Crete.’ 

He called the current space race an ‘utterly pointless exercise in inflating egos that already dwarf the size of the average planet’.      

TEAM BLUE ORIGIN: MARK BEZOS, AVIATION HERO WALLY FUNK AND A DUTCH TEEN WHOSE DAD PAID FOR HIS FLIGHT

Oliver Daemen, Wally Funk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Bezos 

Mark Bezos, 53 

The Amazon founder’s brother has a private equity firm HighPost Capital and is also a volunteer firefighter. 

Bezos said they are the ‘closets of friends’ and have spent their whole lives talking about going to space. 

The pair also have a sister, Christina, who is not taking part in the mission. 

He said he was ‘awestruck’ to have been asked by his brother to join him on the flight. 

‘What a remarkable opportunity, not only to have this adventure, but to be able to do it with my best friend.  

Wally Funk, 82 

Funk was one of 13 women who passed NASA’s astronaut training program in the 1960s.

Then a 21-year-old pilot, she was the youngest of the 13 women who passed the same rigorous testing as the Mercury Seven male astronauts in NASA’s program that first sent Americans into space between 1961 and 1963, but were denied the chance to become astronauts themselves because of their gender. 

Funk was one of 13 women who passed NASA’s astronaut training program in the 1960s.

At 82, she will be the oldest person to go to space on Tuesday. 

She said in an interview about the mission: ‘I didn’t think I’d ever get to go up!’ 

She was also the first female flight instructor at a U.S. military base and the first woman to become an air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. 

Oliver Daemen, 18 

Oliver Daemen, 18

Daemen is the son of financier Joes Daemen, the founder and CEO of Dutch private equity firm Somerset Capital Partners, who paid for the seat and chose to let fly Oliver instead.

‘I am super excited to go to space,’ Oliver said in a video message. ‘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.

Oliver will be the ‘first paying customer’ Blue Origin said in an email, flying to the edge of space, alongside Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Mary Wallace ‘Wally’ Funk and two other passengers.

The company said Oliver ‘has been fascinated by space, the Moon and rockets since he was four’.

A Blue Origin spokesperson told DailyMail.com they are not disclosing the price paid for Oliver’s seat, but confirmed he participated in the auction.

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