Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend Lauren Sanchez embraces him after space launch

Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend Lauren Sanchez planted a kiss on her billionaire beau just moments after he safely returned to Earth this morning following his successful space launch.  

The 51-year-old was spotted hugging and kissing her Amazon founder boyfriend soon after he emerged from the capsule in Texas on Tuesday morning. 

Bezos could be seen hugging his mother Jacklyn immediately after stepping from the capsule before then turning to his girlfriend. 

Sanchez, who was wearing a white dress and cowboy boots, removed her hat to embrace Bezos. 

She then went on to congratulate the others, including Bezos’ brother Mark, teenager Oliver Daemen, who became the youngest person in space, and former NASA trainee Wally Funk, who became the oldest. 

Bezos’ children, who he shares with ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, were also there to welcome their father back.   

‘Best day ever,’ Bezos said immediately after the capsule touched down on the desert floor at the end of the 10-minute flight. 

‘That was incredible, that was unbelievable.’ 

Champagne was flowing as the crew left the capsule after being removed by the ground team from Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin. 

Bezos emerged from the capsule wearing his cowboy hat.  

It was a mission of firsts with Jeff Bezos becoming the wealthiest man to go to space, Funk becoming the oldest and Oliver becoming the youngest astronaut so far. 

His New Shepard rocket soared from remote Texas on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which was a date chosen by Bezos specifically for its historical significance.  

He kept the date even after Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson moved up his own flight, which meant beating Bezos into space by nine days.  

He held fast to it, even as Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson pushed up his own flight from New Mexico in the race for space tourist dollars and beat him to space by nine days.

Unlike Branson’s piloted rocket plane, Bezos’ capsule was automated and required no official staff on board for the up-and-down flight.

Sir Richard Branson tweeted his congratulations to the fellow astronauts after they landed back on Earth. 

Blue Origin reached an altitude of about 66 miles, which was more than 10 miles higher than Branson’s July 11 ride. 

The 60-foot booster accelerated to Mach 3 or three times the speed of sound to get the capsule high enough, before separating and landing upright. 

The passengers had several minutes of weightlessness to float around the spacious white capsule before returning back to Earth.