Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was widely mocked after stepping into a hole and face-planting while excitedly walking around the Blue Origin capsule containing his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez.
Sanchez and five other women were part of a Blue Origin flight that brought them into space for a 10-minute ride.
Video footage captured Jeff Bezos rushing toward the space capsule carrying Lauren Sanchez, singer Katy Perry, and journalist Gayle King, among others. In his excitement, Bezos stumbled and fell, but quickly recovered and continued on to greet Sanchez at the capsule’s hatch.
You can see what happened in the video below.
It was a very cathartic moment as far as Bezos' critics were concerned—and they mocked him profusely.
Blue Origin confirmed that the New Shepard capsule carrying Sanchez and her crewmates reached an altitude of 346,802 feet above ground level—or 350,449 feet above mean sea level—putting the flight well past the Kármán line, the 100-kilometer boundary often used to define the edge of space. The flight lasted just over 10 minutes, with the capsule touching down at precisely 8:40:21 a.m. CDT.
Tucked beneath Lauren Sanchez’s seat during the flight was a small device flown on behalf of Teachers in Space, a U.S.-based nonprofit. The gadget was built to capture the sights and sounds of the journey, giving students back on Earth a closer look—and listen—at what it’s like to ride aboard New Shepard.
Sanchez said the "sensors in this payload will measure and record things like acceleration, sound, temp, pressure and more," adding that "this is their way of experiencing space through science."
Perry described the trip as "overwhelming," calling it "the highest high." She added that the experience signifies "surrender to the unknown, trust. … I couldn’t recommend this experience more.” When asked by reporters if she would write a song about her experience in space, Perry gave an unequivocal "yes."