What Jeff Bezos' trip into orbit means for commercial space flight

The billionaire race is heating up!

Jeff Bezos and his company Blue Origin set another milestone for commercial space travel as he and his crew successfully blasted off into space on Tuesday.

This comes a week after billionaire Richard Branson's successful mission into orbit.

RELATED: Blue Origin preparing for its first-ever crewed rocket launch

Bezos and his team launched into space at 9:11 a.m. for a roughly 10-minute flight aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket. The crew landed back to Earth safely. The launch is a long time coming for Bezos who founded the company about 21 years ago.

To date, Blue Origin has performed 15 uncrewed test flights. Tuesday's flight makes history as the first unpiloted "suborbital" flight with a civilian crew. 

Also on board: Bezos' brother Mark, 18-year-old Physics student Oliver Daemen and 82-year-old aerospace pioneer Wally Funk. Daemen and Funk are now the youngest and oldest people to fly in space.

Funk says it's a lifelong dream come true. 

RELATED: Battle of the billionaires: Space race heats up on heels of Bezos' flight

"Now, I'm gonna go up with the best team ever and we're gonna show the world what can be done in space."

Bezos aimed to become the second billionaire to ride his own rocket into space. Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson launched into space last Sunday. The two companies are competing in the market of space tourism. 

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