Jeff Bezos roasted for thanking Amazon employees, customers for paying for spaceflight: 'I'd like a refund'

Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, thanked his employees and customers pn Tuesday for subsidizing his Blue Origin spaceflight, during which he and three others spent 11 minutes inside the “New Shepard” capsule after lifting off from Van Horn County, Texas.

The New Shepard, named for Alan Shepard, the first American in space, took off on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and the automated capsule reached an altitude of about 66 miles, more than 10 miles higher than Virgin founder Richard Branson’s July 11 ride. The 60-foot (18-meter) booster accelerated to Mach 3 or three times the speed of sound to get the capsule high enough, before separating and landing upright. Upon his return to terra firma, Bezos was roasted by critics for his comments thanking customers for the reported $5.5 billion cost of the Blue Origin endeavor.' The New York Daily News reported that the ticket cost for one seat on Tuesday's flight was $28 million, with the Big Apple publication remarking a New Yorker could buy 5.4 million hot dogs at Nathan's Famous on Coney Island for that amount.