NBC Bay Area caught up with a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who, just last week, was preparing to travel to space with his son.
Blue Origin venture capitalist Lane Bess is back from an out-of-this-world trip and is now planning to make it easier for others to have the same opportunity.
When the "New Shepard" launched over the weekend, Bess was on board. He bought two tickets at an auction; one for himself and one for his son.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
"Was it worth it for you," NBC Bay Area reporter Scott Budman asked Bess. "Oh, absolutely. Without question. It's life changing," he said.
Bess explained the trip as "just natural" and said it "almost feel like you're in the womb."
Lane said there were two main things on his mind while in space. One was sharing the experience with his 23-year-old son Cameron.
Local
"If you ever want to get close to somebody, in particular a son or wife or child, this is a way to do it, he said. "An experience I can't even describe."
And since he's a venture capitalist, he's now figuring out how he can invest in this next and make trips like this more affordable for more people.
"My biggest hope," he said, "and you feel this even more when you look at the earth from space."
He said that when he watches the playback of the launch he thinks "gosh, I was in that thing. It chokes me up. You gotta do this if you can."
Now that space tourism is more attainable and people are actually doing it, the Federal Aviation Administration said after this year, no more commercial astronaut wings will be given out.
NASA said its only actual astronauts that will get their wings from the space agency itself.
