Jeff Bezos thanks Amazon employees customers for paying for his jaunt to space: 'You guys paid for all of this'
By: insider@insider.com (Ben Gilbert) 17 mins ago (MSN)
During the press conference, Bezos announced his own version of the Pulitzer Prize, called Courage and Civility.
He awarded $100 million to Van Jones for his tireless work and efforts to cross all lines to get people to work together,
while remaining civil.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
© Blue Origin Amazon cofounder Jeff Bezos, next to a rocket created by his space company Blue Origin. Blue Origin
- Billionaire Amazon cofounder Jeff Bezos thanked Amazon's customers for funding his space trip.
- "I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all of this," Bezos said.
- Critics have said that, rather than flying to space, Bezos should invest his billions on Earth.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
After a brief trip to space on Tuesday morning, billionaire Amazon cofounder and former CEO Jeff Bezos thanked Amazon customers and employees for making the trip possible.
"I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all of this," Bezos said during a post-flight press conference. "Seriously, for every Amazon customer out there, and every Amazon employee, thank you from the bottom of my heart very much. It's very appreciated."
Bezos - alongside his brother Mark, 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, and 82-year-old Wally Funk - took a New Shepard rocket created by Bezos' space company Blue Origin into sub-orbital space on Tuesday morning.
The crew enjoyed a three minute period of weightlessness before descending back to Earth.
A live broadcast of the event captured the capsule's descent and the crew's excited reactions after having reached the edge of space and returning safely:
© Blue Origin / New Shepard First Human Flight Bezos Blue Origin Launch July 2021 Blue Origin / New Shepard First Human Flight
Bezos is the second billionaire to reach space in recent days, with Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson spending over $840 million on a similar trip earlier this month.
Critics have repeatedly lambasted both Branson and Bezos' space trips, and pointed out that money used on building rockets could be used to combat the ongoing climate crisis or any number of other problems facing humanity.
Both billionaires have pushed back on that criticism by saying they're creating opportunities for new markets by creating a path to space travel. "I say they are largely right," Bezos said in an interview with CNN this week. "We have to do both. We have lots of problems here on Earth and we have to work on those."
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Bezos announced his own version of the Pulitzer Prize, called Courage and Civility.
He awarded $100 million to Van Jones for his tireless work and efforts to cross all lines to get people to work together,
while remaining civil.
Bezos indicated that there was a second award but all of the TV coverage cut away to other stories after Van Jones attempted to speak.
No politics please
wth?, I didn't know there was going to be a $100 million prize for being civil.
Bummer, Dude.
meh, I was never a contender...
You could have been
too late for me to change these faded spots...
Someone on twitter said Van Jones should take the 100 million dollars and donate it to union organizing at Amazon.
Why? They make a decent wage and they don't test for THC in the hiring process. More are happy than unhappy for that fact alone.
They don't test for THC????? Wow!
I think they're paying $20 an hour at the fulfillment center close to me. I met a girl a few years back that told me all the returns they get go into the crusher. she ran the department there.
Nor do they discriminate against tattoos, piercings or hair "styles or colors" for working as a picker or most any position at the "fulfillment centers".
Not sure about official delivery people but there are a lot of tattoos in evidence from the people delivering to my neighborhood, men & women.
being loaded probably helps doing that kind of monotonous work...
from Yahoo Finance :
Congressman calls for new space tax as Bezos completes spaceflight
Damned skippy it should be taxed.
But why did it have to be a democrat to propose it?
The
RepublicansFascists apparently haven't received any marching orders yet. So they don't know what to say.Should they praise the success of capitalism? Should they crap on Bezos? Until their Great Leader makes a pronouncement, they're sheep without a shepherd.
"I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all of this," Bezos said in a press conference.
Actually, we all paid for the government to operate on your behalf so that you could spend your money to float around in zero gravity for two minutes instead.
They could advance the tourism aspect with HALO jumps.
I'm thinking that opening a door would have a negative affect on the aerodynamics, lol.
they could put a big wing vent next to the window...
What a guy!