Yahoo TV

STORY: The New Shepard spacecraft blasted off at 8:59 a.m. CDT, and the crew capsule separated from the six-story-tall rocket a short time later as it soared to an altitude of 66 miles.

The crew members experienced a few minutes of weightlessness at the very apex of their brief ride before the capsule fell back to Earth to the desert floor under a canopy of three parachutes, landing safely outside the west Texas town of Van Horn.

The flight came two days after it was initially scheduled, with poor weather conditions forcing the mission to be postponed on Tuesday.

Unlike Blue Origin's first three crewed flights, which featured passenger rosters including "Star Trek" actor William Shatner, morning TV host Michael Strahan and Bezos himself, nobody on Thursday's flight was particularly famous.