Blue Origin

Jeff Bezos' rocket company has suffered its first launch failure. Barely a minute into the flight, bright yellow flames shot out from around the single engine and the capsule’s emergency launch abort system immediately kicked in, lifting the craft off the top. It parachuted onto the remote desert floor, but the rocket crashed back to Earth. The rocket is the same kind Blue Origin uses to send paying customers on short rides to the edge of space.

At age 90, the Star Trek actor is poised to become the oldest person ever to visit space. "It's never too late to experience new things," Shatner said on Monday.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos has reached a life-long goal of flying in space. His company Blue Origin launched its first mission with passengers Tuesday morning from West Texas, ushering in a new era of private space tourism. But with a high price tag can only the wealthy fly?

Jeff Bezos gave $100 million each in "courage and civility awards" to CNN's Van Jones and chef José Andrés.

The founder of Amazon, who stepped down as CEO this month, lifted off early Tuesday with three crewmates on the maiden flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard launch vehicle.