Image: Bloomberg / Contributor
Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people on Earth and founder of Amazon, is about to lift off in a rocket built by his company Blue Origin. Nothing will probably go wrong, but there's a small chance something might. He's not nervous.He actually was beat to the punch by fellow billionaire Richard Branson, who flew in his own company's spaceplane last week. I should mention they're not actually going to space, really, but like technically-space? Bezos is going on an 11 minute flight from launch to landing that will take him above the Kármán Line 100 kilometers above sea level, which is most widely considered the boundary to space. Branson's spaceplane flew even lower, though he maintained it was also still space. They actually fought a bit over this point but seem to have made up :)The point is, we're all going to be watching this anyway, so why not watch it here? And while you're here, you might as well read about why this all has nothing to do with space, and rather the inauguration of these guys' new rich-person tourism business. If you do want to read about space, we've got plenty of that on tap: Jupiter's mysterious "clockwork" bursts of energy, perhaps? Or how about an object in space so large it's challenging standard physics, or the cosmic web that connects the universe, which is somehow real and not merely the invention of someone who's had a tab. Now that you've got a few things to keep you occupied, let's sit back and watch what happens. Action starts at 9 EST.