a successful launch and landing today for billionaire jeff bezos and three other passengers. their journey lasting a mere ten minutes and ten seconds, went just past the edge of space. this kind of manned mission is by far not the first, the first american was alan shepard on may 5th, 1961. but this could be a giant step towards many more trips for wealthy civilians. two, one. reporter: blast off. blue origin s new shepard on its flight carrying the richest man in the world jeff bezos into space. i couldn t pick a best part. reporter: also on board, bezos brother mark.
john: as you know, it is just something that the royal family does not do. sandra: well, he has removed himself from that, and they gave him the blessing, but then to do this, i believe is going to feel like a major betrayal appeared to i m sure. he had a lot of things to get off his chest because as we all know, sandra, it s tough being a prince. [laughs] say to you i knew you were going to say that. john: sandra, amazon founder jeff bezos making history today, blasting off to the edge of space on and on piloted suborbital flight with a fully civilian crew. it was developed by his company, blue origin. touched down safely after about 10 minutes in the air. what does the flight mean for the future of space and space tourism? let s bring in former astronaut, jose hernandez. as, great to see you. it was called the new shepherd in honor of alan shepard who did the same thing back on may 5th 1961. i actually watch that blast off,
itself, a product of the cold war. you ve covered every manned u.s. space mission beginning with allen shepherd s 1961 suborbital night. talk to me about the irony, the irony that this country is now dependent on russia for manned space missions. craig, every astronaut, you know, they just couldn t believe what was happening no nasa because they fought so hard to regain the lead from russia with allen shepherd, as you said, flying may 5th, 1961. if allen was alive today, i know he would be beside himself. i just finished writing the book neil armstrong: a life of flight because we lost neil about a year and a half or so ago. he and i were writing a couple of reports at that time for n nbcnews.com. anyway, we were talking about doing a book for 20 years. this is the main thing that neil
ohm s1 is not required. jay, any time we experience these launches it never loses any of its excitement. you ve covered every launch for the past 30 years. is it special for you? is each one different? reporter: well, you re being kind. this is 163 launches in the last 50 years, not 30. but starting on may 5th, 1961, which will be 50 years next may 5th with the launch of alan shepherd and they re all exciting. you never lose that excitement because you re sort of there with them as they go into space and as they ride into orbit you go along if you can. what strikes you about this one in your experience? is it a little bitter sweet knowing it s likely the last for the atlantis and there are only two more left in the fleet? reporter: well, yes, it is, because at my age, i m 76 years old now, i ve been covering them for nbc for 52 years. i realize that after these final
within the gulf are going to do most of that. over the weekend, a north wind. i don t expect the oil to make much northern progression, it will sneak farther to the west but mississippi, alabama, northern florida in next two to three days will be safe. longer term is a trickier issue. if this gets into the stronger currents of the gulf stream to the south, that means southern florida may very well sb into play but too far along to tell then. but for now weather helping the coordinated effort to get those booms out and the dispersement planes dropping down those things to keep that oil from coming up. kyra? all right, rob. we are going to track it. appreciate it. the first american in space on this date in history, may 5th, 1961, alan shepard blasted off from freedom 7. he picked the name. his suborbital flight lasted 15 minutes. in 1891, carnegie hall first opened its doors in new york city, although some say