Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin Crew successfully launch into space and land safely

Jeff Bezos literally puts his money and his ass on the line for his aerospace company Blue Origin’s first crewed mission to space at 6 a.m. PT… and TMZ will be broadcast live.

The richest man in the world and 3 others jump into the New Shepard autonomous capsule for the highly anticipated journey into sub-orbital space. His future astronaut colleagues are Jeff’s brother, Marc Bezos, pilot test Wally funk and recent HS graduate Olivier Daemen.

The whole thing, from takeoff to landing, should take about 11 minutes. The capsule will take off from a remote area near Van Horn, Texas … about 2 hours southeast of El Paso. He landed in the Texas desert, after being slowed down by parachutes.

When they reach the edge of space – an altitude of about 65 miles – Bezos & Co. will experience several minutes of weightlessness. In comparison … Richard bransonThe VSS Unity only traveled about 53 miles. FYI, the FAA and the Air Force recognize space at an altitude of 50 miles.

While Branson went up first – winning the so-called billionaire space race – Bezos’ flight will go down in history in several other ways.

If successful, Jeff’s space trip will be the first to be unmanned with civilian crew. Wally and Olivier would also set records as the oldest and youngest to reach space at 82 and 18, respectively.

Wally, BTW, was one of the first Mercury 13 women who attended training in the 1960s to show that women could meet NASA standards to become astronauts.

The launch comes 9 days after the Branson launch successful launch and perfect landing in New Mexico.