Jeff Bezos is wasting no time after stepping down as Amazon’s CEO and aiming for a childhood dream, but wow, July is coming soon, and it’s a double header for the guy. Bezos is scheduled to formally relinquish his CEO title on July 5, and two weeks later, he will take on a childhood dream. That is, he will be hopping aboard the first manned rocket-ship flight of his own space company, Blue Origin, with his brother. Well, many Americans are looking forward to taking at least a slight vacation this summer, but yeah, leave it to Jeff Bezos to take things to an extreme.
“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space,” Bezos wrote on Instagram. “On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend. #GradatimFerociter”
Naturally, Bezos dropped a Latin phrase in there, meaning that he’s gradually taken a step-by-step approach to this next ferocious frontier in his life. Given that his first job (as a teenager) was at a McDonalds, he’s certainly gone places, and USA Today has published details about Jeff’s brother, Mark, who’s worked as an executive at Robin Hood (the anti-poverty charity in NYC, not the controversial stock-brokering app) and has been a long-time volunteer firefighter who’s ready for a new adventure.
As CNN points out, Bezos will be the first billionaire in space, before both Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk:
If all goes according to plan, Bezos — the world’s richest person with a net worth of $187 billion — will be the first of the billionaire space tycoons to experience a ride aboard the rocket technology that he’s poured millions into developing. Not even Elon Musk, whose SpaceX builds rockets powerful enough to enter orbit around Earth, has announced plans to travel to space aboard one of his companies human-worthy crew capsules.
Naturally, there are plenty of jokes out there on social media. That includes jabs about space trips “for fun” and a possible “Amazon fulfillment center on the moon” somehow being in mankind’s future.
Jeff Bezos is so rich that he takes trips to space for fun.
— Pomp
(@APompliano) June 7, 2021
Jeff Bezos is going to space which means there is 100% going to be an Amazon fulfillment center on the moon by the end of the decade
— Morning Brew
(@MorningBrew) June 7, 2021
Hmm I wonder why the recently single Jeff Bezos is going to space??? pic.twitter.com/Dpk38NJbsS
— Michael A. Balazo (@mbalazo) June 7, 2021
Amazon workers have to pee in bottles. Jeff Bezos gets to take joyrides to space https://t.co/b4bYSOhKeT
— David Gardner (@byDavidGardner) June 7, 2021
In a way, we are all brothers and sisters and siblings, and in another way, @JeffBezos and I have a long lasting kinship through mostly one-sided DMs, and in both of those ways I would like to please maybe also go to space thank you amen
— Joe Barnard (@joebarnard) June 7, 2021
are we gonna throw “jeff bezos is not on earth” parties while he’s in space or
— joseph birdsong
(@josephbirdsong) June 7, 2021
Previously, Bezos opened up bidding for anyone who wanted to join the 6-person flight, and the highest bid rose to at least $3.6 million. It’s worth noting that Amazon rarely pays taxes and, in fact, paid a mere 1.2% in 2020 after not having done so since 2016.
Jeff Bezos going to space is a reminder that despite generating billions in revenue Amazon pays almost no taxes https://t.co/KNzKrxRYKd
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) June 7, 2021