Jeff Bezos shared a special message to his mother from space during Tuesday morning’s successful Blue Origin flight.
The billionaire and his brother Mark scrawled ‘HI MOM’ across their palms, which they waved at the camera during the 10 minute voyage.
When they landed back on Earth, Jeff stepped out of the New Sheppard capsule and immediately ran to hug his mother Jacklyn, later gifting her with a Blue Origin feather necklace he wore during the journey.
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Jeff and Mark Bezos sent their mother a message from space on board Blue Origin’s New Sheppard space craft Tuesday morning
The pair wrote ‘HI MOM’ across their palms which they waved at the camera during the flight
The 57-year-old Amazon founder also gave his mother a feather that he wore on a necklace on the flight. She is shown, right, with his sister Christina
After he presented her with the necklace, the mother and son embraced
The Bezos brothers and the crew of Blue Origin took off from their base at Van Horn, Texas, at 9.12am EST on Tuesday, the 52nd anniversary of the moon landing, 12 minutes behind schedule. They ascended for four minutes before the New Shepard rocket booster separated from their capsule, leaving them floating in zero gravity for four minutes.
They were joined by 18-year-old Oliver Daemen – the word’s first paying customer to buy his flight – and 82-year-old Wally Funk, who passed NASA’s space program in the 1960s but never made it to space because the women’s flight was canceled.
They then returned to earth with parachutes controlling the pace of their descent, touching down in the Texas desert at 9.22am EST, 10 minutes and 20 seconds after liftoff.
The 10 minute journey cost $5.5billion – $550million per minute.
Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon CEO earlier this year and will now split his time between Blue Origin and his environmental charity, said at a press conference after the flight: ‘For every amazon customer, you guys paid for all this so thank you from the bottom of my heart.’
The New Shepard launched at 9.12am EST on Tuesday, 12 minutes after schedule. At 9.16am EST – four minutes later – the booster separated from the capsule, where the four crew members floated in zero gravity for four minutes before starting their descent. First, three parachutes deployed then another three before the capsule touched back down in the Texas desert at 9.22am EST
Jeff Bezos hugs his mother Jacklyn after returning to earth with his crew mates on Tuesday morning, as 82-year-old Wally Funk exited the capsule
Jeff has always been close with this mother and says she inspired his success.
In 2017, he tweeted an old photo of him and his mom, noting that he had ‘won the lottery with my mom,’ and thanking her for everything she had done for him.
And just last year, when he testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative law, which was investigating the monopolistic practices of big technology companies like Amazon, Bezos said he considers his parents his ‘greatest gifts.’
‘They have been incredible role models for me and my siblings our entire life,’ he said at the time.
His mom and step-father were the ones who gave Jeff the investment to start Amazon which would grow to become multibillion dollar company with a $837,330.25 revenue per minute in 2021′s first quarter.
In 2017, Bezos tweeted his appreciation for his mother, Jacklyn, thanking her for everything she had done for him
He had previously announced that the 600-foot ship that would act as a floating platform for his company’s 310-foot orbital class New Glenn rocket would be named in her honor
Bezos first presented his mother and step-father, Mike Bezos, with the idea of an online book company in 1995, and together they lent him $245,573 – which was then considered a lot of money, and a risk considering the internet was in its infancy, he said.
‘They weren’t making a bet on Amazon or the concept of a bookstore on the Internet. They were making a bet on their son,’ Bezos recounted at the anti-trust hearing last year. ‘I told them that I thought there was a 70 percent chance they would lose their investment, and they did it anyway.’
Their investment would be worth almost $30 billion today, according to Market Realist, making Bezos’ parents wealthier than Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Jeff has found his own ways to pay his parents back.
In late December, he announced on Instagram the 600-foot ship that would act as a floating platform for his company’s 310-foot orbital class New Glenn rocket would be named Jacklyn in her honor.
The 57-year-old Blue Origin founder wrote at the time: ‘New Glenn’s first stage will come home to the Jacklyn after every flight.
‘It couldn’t be more appropriately named – Mom has always given us the best place and the best heart to come home to.’
Jacklyn Bezos had Jeff when she was barely 17 and a junior in high school. They are seen here at the Amazon’s Emmy Celebration at the Sunset Tower Hotel in September 2016
Jacklyn met Mike Bezos while attending night classes, and they were married in 1968. Jeff now considers Mike his father, and he and his parents were seen together at the Smithsonian Magazine’s 2016 American Ingenuity Awards
The world’s richest man came from relatively humble beginnings.
The world’s richest man came from relatively humble beginnings.
Jacklyn had Jeff when she was barely 17 and a junior at a high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1964.
In a 2019 commencement address at Cambridge College, she revealed she had to fight to continue her education and they imposed humiliating restrictions on – banning her from speaking to other students or eat in the cafeteria or walk across the stage to get her diploma at her graduation.
When Jeff was growing up, she was a divorced single mom, surviving on a $190-a-month secretarial job – the equivalent of $1,529 in 2019.
Soon, she said, she was able to afford an apartment for her and her young son, but she did not have enough money for a phone to keep in touch with her parents, so they gave her a walkie-talkie and told her to check in every day at 7am.
Determined to continue with her education, Jacklyn then enrolled in night school and specifically chose classes where the professor would let her bring Jeff to class.
‘I would show up with an infant and two duffel bags,’ she recounted. ‘One full of my textbooks, and the other full of diapers, cloth diapers, bottles… And the second duffel bag would have items that might keep Jeff interested for a few minutes.’
She met Mike Bezos, a Cuban immigrant, in one of those classes, she said, and the two were married in 1968. To this day, Jeff says, he considers Mike his father.
Soon though, Jacklyn said in her speech, according to CNBC, the family had to move for Mike’s job and her ‘dream of graduating from college was put on hold.’
Eventually, she said she began to envy her children when they went away to college, but finally, at the age of 40, she, herself, graduated from the college of Saints Elizabeth.
Bezos tweeted the speech soon after her commencement address, writing: ‘My mom’s incredible story. Wow. So grateful. So proud.’