Billionaire Jeff Bezos rocketed into space on the first crewed flight of the New Shepard spacecraft built by his company Blue Origin.
Bezos is accompanied by his brother Mark Bezos, 82-year-old pioneer of the space race Wally Funk and 18-year-old student Oliver Daemen of the Netherlands.
The launch took place from Bezos' private launch site near Van Horn, Texas and the flight is expected to last 11 minutes.
Two minutes into the flight, the capsule separated from its rocket and continued upwards towards the Karman Line - the most widely recognised boundary of space, 100km up.
Blue Origin
The passengers experienced about four minutes of weightlessness, and were able to unstrap from their seats to float around and enjoy the views of our planet far below.
After the capsule reached a maximum altitude of around 106km (350,000ft), it began its descent, parachuting down to a soft landing in the desert.
Bezos and Branson have been criticised on social media, with users arguing the money for space could be put to better use - such as tackling climate change or helping the world recover from the pandemic.
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