Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder turned space entrepreneur and private philanthropist, reached the limits of space above the West Texas desert early Tuesday, fulfilling a childhood dream and ending a long streak delays for his private space company.

The richest man in the world and three others were propelled to a height of 107 km, 7 km above the internationally recognized limit of space, in a 60-foot rocket built by Blue Origin.

They experienced about three minutes of weightlessness and views of Earth through giant portholes that the company had called the “largest windows in space” before their capsule returned to the desert for a soft landing under. three parachutes.

Bezos, who has been criticized for spending billions of dollars on his personal escape to space, has dismissed claims he is turning his back on more serious issues. Blue Origin was created to “build a road to space” that would relieve earth development, he said after the flight. “We have to do this to solve the problems here on Earth. It is not about escaping from Earth.

He also thanked “every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you paid for it all.”

Bezos said development in space would eventually ease the burden on the planet, saying, “All polluting industries will leave Earth and Earth will eventually be zoned residential. ”

The launch is the first for a paying passenger on a rocket fully developed and operated by a private company. Oliver Daemen, 18, the son of a Dutch hedge fund manager, was given a last-minute seat on the flight after the anonymous winner of an auction for the seat shouted because of what the company called it a “planning conflict”.

“This is a big time for the commercial space, it’s extremely important,” said Greg Autry, a former White House liaison to NASA.

In addition to signaling the onset of suborbital space tourism, the flight showed that Blue Origin had developed technologies that would fuel much more ambitious launches in the future, Autry added.

Five other articles in the news

1. Wall Street stocks bounce back from Delta-fueled retirement Wall Street stock markets recouped losses from a global rout a day earlier as investors ignored caution over the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant and instead focused on economic growth.

2. Trump ally Tom Barrack accused of acting illegally as UAE agent The former CEO of Colony Capital, who was an early supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, has been arrested and charged with acting illegally as an agent of the United Arab Emirates.

3. China responds to accusations of US-led cyberattacks China has challenged US accusations that Beijing was at the heart of a wave of global cyberattacks, including an offensive against a Microsoft messaging app that has affected tens of thousands of organizations. The White House and its Western allies on Monday accused Beijing of teaming up with criminal gangs to carry out large-scale cyber attacks.

4. Italian blood samples revive the debate on the first signs of Covid in Europe New tests of blood samples collected in Italy in October 2019 reignited a debate on the circulation of the coronavirus in Europe before the Chinese authorities confirmed the first case in Wuhan.

5. China must cut emissions to avoid climate “chaos”, warns US envoy Kerry Beijing must reduce its emissions this decade if the planet is to avoid “climate chaos”, warned US climate envoy John Kerry, as he issued a harsh assessment that the world was not meeting its climate commitments.

• Read more Climate change has definitely arrived in China. Abnormally high temperatures above 35 ° C contributed to its worst electricity shortage in a decade. For local power companies, this is a problem.

Coronavirus digest

• from China The commitment to reach zero cases of Covid-19 means that most of its citizens will likely be cut off from the outside world until the end of the year or even midway through 2022, analysts say.

• case of covid in Burma have more than doubled every week in recent weeks, and the situation is particularly deadly due to public mistrust of the military regime, which has attacked, imprisoned or killed dozens of health workers for opposing its take to be able to.

• It is estimated that two-thirds of people in India have Covid-19 antibodies, according to a new government investigation.

• we Health officials said on Tuesday that the Delta variant accounted for more than 80% of new coronavirus cases in the country.

• Indonesia extends the distancing measures put in place at the beginning of the month to contain a severe wave of Covid-19.

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The day to come

Brexit briefing UK Brexit Minister David Frost will address Parliament today on the Northern Ireland Protocol, which he says puts too much of a burden on business and delays trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Industry groups in Northern Ireland say the protocol can and must work, even if it causes serious disruption.

Earnings Johnson & Johnson, which is part of a proposed $ 26 billion settlement to resolve claims it helped fuel the opioid crisis, is releasing second quarter results today. The group agreed to a $ 230 million settlement with New York State last month to settle the claims.

Coca-Cola, Dutch chip equipment supplier ASML, which recently won first place as a climate leader by MSCI, telecommunications operator Verizon and software and service provider SAP, also said profits.

What else do we read

“There are possibilities everywhere” A profound change is underway in the American labor market. U.S. employers have historically been able to dictate terms to their workers, but now companies are desperate to hire staff as lingering fears over the pandemic, lack of child care, and a temporary extension of unemployment benefits have kept them going. many workers on the sidelines. Job seekers have more bargaining power with potential employers than they have in decades.

Brussels warns Poland to comply with EU court rulings or face fines The European Commission has warned Warsaw that it could face financial penalties if it does not comply with two European Court of Justice rulings on judicial independence.

We can no longer say that the floods are an act of God Western citizens have come to believe that flooding is happening elsewhere. At worst, they happen in the developing world. But the city, a fortress of asphalt and concrete, a marvel of modern civil engineering, has left us with a false sense of security. This dam could be on the verge of bursting, writes Joy Lo Dico.

New York celebrates like there’s no more Covid On July 4, an Independence Day was in full swing on the rolling greens of the Apawamis Country Club golf course just north of New York City. Hundreds of club members and their guests of all ages – families with young children and teens, elderly grandparents, recent retirees – had all stepped out in a crowded celebration, writes Renée Kaplan.

Why Gabon wants markets to help fight climate change As oil reserves dwindle, Gabon is seeking to reposition itself as a “green superpower”. The rare high-income country in Africa wants to be recognized for the preservation of its tropical forests, the most important forest ecosystem on the planet after the Amazon. So how does she plan to gain “natural capital”?

• Keep reading The drought is putting the Amazon rainforest at risk of “large-scale dieback,” the researchers warn. A new study has found that 2.5 billion trees perished in the biome as a result of a drought several years ago.

Fashion

When it comes to summer suits, crumpled is the word Like so many things, the summer suit reinvents itself as a separate piece, a revisited seersucker, finally learning to love the crinkle of linen and, if in doubt, paired with sneakers. Nicholas Foulkes explains how men are embracing the post-containment art of dressing casual.