Jeff Bezos and a small crew successfully went to space and back on Tuesday morning, and actress/director Elizabeth Banks is happy about their safe return — but only for half the people on board.
The crew of the New Shepard included the billionaire and his brother, Mark, pilot Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk and 18-year-old physics student Oliver Daemon. The latter half of the crew marks both the oldest and the youngest person ever to go to space, respectively.
Upon their return, Banks tweeted out her relief for Funk and Daemon’s wellbeing, but only for theirs. “I’m very happy the teenager and the old lady are still alive,” she tweeted.
Banks has largely been silent on the billionaire’s space endeavors. Since it was announced that Bezos would be going to space on June 7, Banks has only posted this tweet on the matter. She did not post anything else after the capsule’s safe return.
The spacecraft took off without any issues shortly after 9 AM ET from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas. After 7 minutes, the crew capsule separated from the booster rocket. The booster safely landed on the ground a few minutes later, followed by the crew capsule.
Funk was part of a group of female aviators called Mercury 13 in the 1960s, and was the first female flight instructor at a U.S. military base. Daemon scored his spot on the crew when Blue Origin’s anonymous auction winner declined the opportunity to participate. Bezos then selected Daemon — Blue Origin’s first paying customer — as the alternative.
Of course, Elizabeth Banks is not the only person who hoped Bezos wouldn’t return from the journey. In June, more than 100,000 people signed a petition created on activism platform Change.org titled, “Do not allow Jeff Bezos to return to Earth.” While Change.org encourages people to write deep descriptions of their petitions, this one is just one concise sentence: “Billionaires should not exist… on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter they should stay there.”
