And we have liftoff! 🚀⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his New Shepard rocket crew blasted off Tuesday from the West Texas desert, reached space and returned to Earth with a smooth parachute landing minutes later.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ "Happy, happy, happy!" Jeff Bezos said from space. "You have a very happy crew up here!" Upon landing, he said it was the "best day ever." ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Also on board were his brother Mark, longtime women-in-space advocate Mary Wallace "Wally" Funk, and Oliver Daemen, the defacto winner of an auction for the capsule’s fourth seat. Funk, 82, is now the oldest person ever in space. Daemen, 18, is the youngest. The exultant travelers climbed out of the capsule to hugs from family and friends.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ "Congratulations to all of Team Blue past and present on reaching this historic moment in spaceflight history," tweeted Bezos' space tourism company, Blue Origin.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ "This first astronaut crew wrote themselves into the history books of space, opening the door through which many after will pass." ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Tap the link in bio to read the full story.⁠⁠ 📸@blueorigin, @afpphoto via @gettyimages, @apnews ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ #jeffbezos #blueorigin #space