- Jeff Bezos says taking off on his first spaceflight felt like attending his own memorial service.
- Bezos told podcaster Lex Fridman that his friends and family were visibly nervous before the flight.
- “They’re saying goodbye to us, but maybe they think they’re saying goodbye to us forever,” he said.
Taking off into space was an emotionally charged experience for Jeff Bezos.
The Amazon founder was a member of the first crewed flight for his spaceflight company, Blue Origin’s rocket launch in July 2021.
For Bezos, the emotions started hitting him even before he boarded his rocket.
“The people on the ground were very nervous for us. It was actually one of the most emotionally powerful parts of the experience. It happened even before the flight,” Bezos said on the latest episode of the “Lex Fridman Podcast,” which aired on Thursday.
Bezos told Fridman that he wasn’t nervous then, but he could sense how worried his friends and family members were.
“They’re saying goodbye to us, but maybe they think they’re saying goodbye to us forever. We might not have felt that way, but it was obvious from their faces how nervous they were, and they felt that way,” Bezos recounted to Fridman.
“It was almost like attending your own memorial service or something. You could feel how loved you were in that moment, and it was really amazing,” he said.
Bezos flew to space with three other crew members — his younger brother Mark, American aviator Wally Funk, and Dutch youth Oliver Daemen. The entire launch and flight took just 11 minutes and was executed autonomously without any pilots.
Space travel is now Bezos’ prime pursuit. The billionaire told Fridman that he stepped down as Amazon CEO so that he could concentrate on Blue Origin.
The rocket company, which was founded by Bezos in 2000, has developed three space vehicles thus far — the New Shepard, New Glenn, and Blue Moon.
“Most of my time is spent on Blue Origin and I’m so deeply involved here now for the last couple of years,” Bezos told Fridman.
Representatives for Bezos did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
