Blue Origin launched its first manned flight to the edge of space on July 20. The flight that was boarded by the founder of Blue Origin and the world's richest man Jeff Bezos turned out to be breaking four Guinness World Records.
This historic flight took Bezos and three other civilians to suborbital altitude on a New Shepard rocket. The other three passengers were Mark Bezos, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen.
Guinness World Records said the flight broke four records: the oldest person to have ever been in space, the youngest person to have ever been in space, the first siblings to fly together into space, and the first suborbital flight to carry ticket-paying passengers. Space, Saturday (9/10/2021).
Wally Funk broke the record for the oldest person to have ever been in space. At 82 years old, Funk beat the record previously held by NASA astronaut John Glenn, who flew into space on the space shuttle Discovery in October 1998 when he was 77 years old.
In Blue Origin's inaugural manned flight, Funk also fulfilled his lifelong dream of being able to fly into space. Since the 1960s, Funk struggled to become a NASA astronaut but was never selected.
The record for the youngest person to ever go into space is held by Oliver Daemen, who was 18 when he boarded the flight. Daemen also became the first passenger to pay for a ticket to fly into space.
Daemen's flight ticket was paid for by his father, but the price paid was not disclosed to the public. Daemen, who is currently studying at the University of Utrecht, said the experience in outer space was something that changed his life.
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Another record that was broken was the first brothers to fly into space together. As is known, Jeff Bezos invited his younger brother Mark to fly into space to realize his childhood dream.
Despite already breaking four Guinness World Records, Blue Origin is set to break another record in its second manned flight on October 12.
The flight will be joined by four people, three of whom are Planet Labs co-founder Chris Boshuizen, Dassault Systèmes Vice Chairman Glen de Vries, and actor William Shatner. At the age of 90, Shatner, known as Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek series, will become the oldest person to have ever been to outer space.
