"I actually teared up": Jeff Bezos shares emotional moment aboard spacecraft in exclusive interview
Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark accomplished something only one other pair of American siblings has done: The duo spent time in space together.
"Clearly it's a bonding moment for the two of you. Did you have a moment with the two of you up there?" "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King asked the brothers after they landed back on Earth on Tuesday.
"We had a couple of those moments," Jeff Bezos said. "We had about, I don't know, 25 minutes on the ground, with the crew capsules sealed. So it's just the four of us in there, and my brother and I, we picked seats so that we could see each other from our seats … We had some really good, quality time there."
The billionaire Amazon and Blue Origin founder and his younger brother heard a farewell message from their sister, Christina, read to them by mission control before the launch. "Now hurry up and your a-- back down here so I can give you a huge hug. We love you and Godspeed," her message said.
"I actually teared up right there in the capsule," Jeff Bezos said. "It was so heartfelt and, you know, she talked about some of the things we did as kids. It was a very sweet message."
Bezos also wore a Blue Origin feather-logo necklace to space, which he later gave to his mom along with a hug at a post-launch news conference.
Joining the brothers on their journey — the first passenger flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft — was Wally Funk, an 82-year-old who trained as an astronaut in the 1960s but was denied a spot in space because she was a woman, and Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old Dutch student who was the first paying customer. They both made history Tuesday as the oldest and youngest ever to fly in space.
The first American brothers to be in space together were twins Mark and Scott Kelly, both NASA astronauts. The former is now a U.S. senator from Arizona.
Watch more of Gayle King's interview with Jeff and Mark Bezos on "CBS This Morning" on Wednesday.
