0ur correspondent sophie long reports from texas. boarding his 60 foot sub orbital rocket. he was not nervous, he said. just excited. this was notjust about realising a lifelong dream, but expanding his ever growing empire beyond the grip of gravity. with him on this first fully autonomous passenger flight three other civilians his brother mark bezos, 82 year old trail blazing aviator wally funk and 18 year old dutch student 0liver daemen. she was one of mercury 13, a group of american women training to be astronauts but never made it to space. until now. five, four, command engines start, two, one. as you can hear, blue 0rigin s reuseable rocket, carrying its first human passengers and first paying customer, is now on its way to space.
0ur correspondent, sophie long, reports from texas. boarding his 60 foot suborbital rocket. he was not nervous, he said, just excited. this was notjust about realising a lifelong dream, but expanding his ever growing empire beyond the grip of gravity. with him on this first fully autonomous flight, three other civilians. his brother, mark bezos, 18 year old dutch student 0liver daemen, and 82 year old trailblazing aviator wally funk. one of mercury 13, a group of women who went through astronaut testing and training beforejeff bezos was born, but never made it to space until now. mission control: five, four, three, two, one. i as you can hear, the reusable rocket, carrying its first passengers and paying customer is on its way to space.
the headlines: the us climate envoy has said the world can t wait for the end of the covid 19 pandemic before facing up to the environmental crisis. john kerry warned that the suffering caused by not tackling climate change would be much worse than coronavirus. there s been severe flooding across central china. it s caused widespread disruption, with video footage showing images of roads turned into rivers, and cars being stranded by fast rising water. scientists say some regions have experienced an entire year s worth of rain in the past three days. the american billionnaire, jeff bezos, has made a 10 minute18 second trip to space. the founder of amazon was accompanied by his brother mark and the youngest ever astronaut, 0liver daemen, and the oldest, the pioneering female aviator wally funk. now on bbc news,
realising a lifelong dream, but expanding his ever growing empire beyond the grip of gravty. with him on this first fully autonomous passenger flight three other civilians his brother mark bezos, 82 year old trail blazing aviator wally funk, and 18 year old dutch student 0liver daemen. wally was one of the mercury 13, a group of american women training to be astronauts but never made it to space. until now. five, four, command engines start, two, one. as you can hear, blue 0rigin s reuseable rocket, carrying its first human passengers and first paying customer, is now on its way to space. blast off for the new shepard, lift off for space tourism.
with literally no doors to lock, new threats emerge. ido i do have an axe beside my bed. i close my door, if somebody comes and wants to rape me, i don t think there s much to take away. let me sleep, tomorrow is a new day, hopefully we will wake up and work again. anna halligan, bbc news, ahrweiler. jeff bezos, the billionaire founder of amazon, has been to space and back, in the first crewed flight, of his rocket ship, new shepard. 0n the flight was the oldest person who has been to space 82 year old wally funk, and the youngest, 18 year old 0liver daemen. 0ur correspondent sophie long reports from texas. boarding his 60 foot suborbital rocket.