and locals feel adrift. debalin roy, bbc news, sundarbans. the world s richest man is preparing to propel himself to the edge of outer space later today 62 miles above earth. amazon founderjeff bezos hopes the trip will mark a giant leap forward in commercial space travel. sophie long has this report from the launch site. deep in the west texas desert, the richest man on earth is preparing to take his first passengers to space, making history and dreams come true. with him will be trailblazing aviator wally funk who, at 82, will become the oldest person ever to travel to space. whoo! also on board will bejeff bezos younger brother mark, and joining them to enjoy a rare view of earth, dutch teenager oliver daemen.
cowboy hats here in the west texas desert. so really just we could feel a sonic boom and then hear two of them as they came back down to earth, and that kind of visceral moment is something very special. hallie? mike, special is certainly one word for it. from your vantage point how did today go? what were you watching for, what are your takea was, 30 minutes after that touchdown in the desert? thanks very much for having me, hallie today on a special day. i was excited the way things went. anticipation during the launch count is always there and i can feel it down deep inside of me as the count was going on, hoping things were going to go well for him. i have a lot of friends that work at blue origin and happy for them, that it all went well but i think we saw an example of how that system works.
rocketing skyward, blue origin confirming they re strapped in, the door is closed. now we have watch and wait as final preparations are under way. the crew together for the past 72 hours, going over everything one more time, rehearsing the final sequence that will be important to know. piloted completely from the ground. they have a safety switch to use to abort on board the ship. but right now we have countdown temporarily paused. but it since resumed. you can sense the excitement here. we are 20 miles from where this rocket will take off in the west texas desert. people are gathering on nearby highways, hoping for a glimpse of history about to be made. halle? and there s no not like some launches you may have seen in florida where there s a place for everybody to gather and watch. highways are about as close as
deep in the west texas desert, the richest man on earth is preparing to take his first passengers to space, making history and dreams come true. we re going to fly you up into space on the very first flight. with him will be trail blazing aviator wally funk, who at 82, will become the oldest person ever to travel to space. woo! also on board will bejeff bezos s younger brother, mark, and joining them to enjoy a rare view of earth, dutch teenager, oliver damon. space ships are becoming it seems the new superyachts. the launch comes just over a week after another billionaire realised his lifelong dream. sir richard branson may have been the first billionaire to make it to the edge of space, but whenjeff bezos launches his new shepherd rocket, he ll be travelling faster and he ll go higher. it will travel at more than three times the speed of sound to 62 miles above the earth s surface, with no human pilot on board.
so, you know, the booster also gets its astronaut wings. it s internationally deemed astronaut wings. then the booster lands about 8 minutes after take-off. as we pointed out, the whole journey is 11 minutes. the parachute sorry, the capsule lands the parachute so it takes longer to land here. there s three parachutes. they said they tested it so even if one fails t can still safely land with two parachutes. right. before the three main parachutes, the drone parachute, it slows down the capsule before you see the huge hopefully three parachutes. as you pointed out, if there is the off chance there is an issue, the seats have what s called a scissor mechanism underneath. there is a thrust before the capsule hits the ground. you ll see the dust kick up in the west texas desert. it s dusty. make an air cushion essentially