First Egyptian national reaches space in Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin

WASHINGTON: Six people launched to space in Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin on Thursday, including the first from Egypt and Portugal. This is the company's sixth crewed flight.

From the Blues base in the west Texas desert, Mission "N-22" saw the blast off of the New Shepard suborbital rocket at 8:58 a.m. local time (1358 GMT).

The autonomous, reusable vehicle launched its crew capsule 62 miles (100 kilometres) above sea level, above the Karman Line, the internationally recognized outer space boundary.

A crew mate was heard saying, "I'm floating!" on the live stream as the capsule moved to its highest point and passengers felt weightlessness for some minutes.

The rocket and capsule returned to base separately - the latter using giant parachutes. The mission was completed 11 minutes after lift-off.

Egyptian engineer Sara Sabry, and Portuguese entrepreneur Mario Ferreira, both the first from their respective countries to leave Earth, were also a part of the crew, Arab News reported.

The crew also included Coby Cotton, one of the five co-founders of Dude Perfect, a YouTube sports and comedy channel with over 57 million followers.

A spokesperson for Blue Origin confirmed that all six crew members were paying passengers - however, non-profit Space for Humanity sponsored Sabry's seat. Ticket prices were not disclosed by Blue Origin.

Previous space flights included celebrity guests who flew for free. William Shatner, the Star Trek legend was one of them.