Jeff Bezos’s journey to space and back – In pics

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was accompanied by a hand-picked group: his brother, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands and an 82-year-old aviation pioneer from Texas, the youngest and oldest to ever fly in space. Bezos became the second billionaire in just over a week to ride his own spacecraft.

The fully autonomous 60-foot-tall New Shepard spacecraft, lifted off from Blue Origin’s launch facility about 32 km outside the rural town of Van Horn.

Named after America's first astronaut, the New Shepard rocket went into space on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

After the capsule separated from the booster, the crew unbuckled for a few minutes of weightlessness. The capsule then returned to Earth under parachutes, using a retro-thrust system that expelled a "pillow of air" for a soft landing.

"Best day ever," Bezos said after the space capsule touched down.