Former presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has joined her progressive comrades, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Corey Bush, in denouncing Jeff Bezos for flying to space with money that could have been spent on their political preferences.

“It’s time for Jeff Bezos to take care of business right here on Earth and pay his fair share in taxes,” she said in a tweet.

Ask and ye shall receive.

Democrat congressman Earl Blumeanauer, on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, announced a plan to tax commercial space flights for tourists that aren’t used for science.

“Space exploration isn’t a tax-free holiday for the wealthy," Blumenauer said in a statement to The Hill. "Just as normal Americans pay taxes when they buy airline tickets, billionaires who fly into space to produce nothing of scientific value should do the same, and then some."

ormer mayor, one-time presidential candidate, Transportation secretary — future space traveler?

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says he was excited to see Jeff Bezos’ blast-off into space Tuesday, describing space travel as a clear trend for the future. It’s a trip he would love to take himself, even if he doesn’t think it will happen in the foreseeable future.

“I would go up in a heartbeat. I think it’s such exciting stuff,” the 39-year-old Buttigieg told the Economic Club of Washington D.C. But the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who likes to say he has audacity to do bold things, allowed, “I don’t think the airfare or spacefare, whatever you would call it, is going to be in my budget anytime soon.”

“I’m certainly watching that and some of the others with great interest.” - Associated Press

Jeff Bezos is best known as the richest person on Earth, worth an estimated $202.7bn. As of Tuesday morning, he became the richest person ever to leave Earth as a newly minted commercial astronaut.

Using a conventional rocket with a space capsule atop it, Blue Origin launches and lands vertically, with the whole trip taking just 11 minutes from liftoff to landing.

In that 11 minutes fulfilling his dream of going to space, Mr Bezos, who has stepped aside from running Amazon in favour of pursuing this passion, continued to add to his personal fortune.

Oliver O’Connell calculates how much he made during the flight.

Jeff Bezos has thanked Amazon employees and customers for paying for his trip to space, writes Andrew Griffin.

In a press conference after the launch, Mr Bezos thanked those staff for helping him amass enough money that he was able to shoot himself to space in a rocket.

“I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this,” he said to laughs from the crowd.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart very much. It’s very appreciated.”

Press secretary Jen Psaki celebrated today’s launch as a symbol of what makes the United States great.

“This is a moment of American exceptionalism, that how we see it,” she said.

“It will be the ingenuity of all of our commercial partners to help us continue advancing to the next stage of our nation’s exploration, and investments in space create jobs, can improve life here on Earth.”

New Yorkers are not amused.

Or they’re too busy dodging bullets and knife attacks in the famous centre of Manhattan’s tourist and, more recently, shooting attraction.

Either way, they didn’t seem to care too much about Bezos and his big rocket. Check it out at Independent TV.

While today’s space flight could be considered a milestone moment for innovation and progress, trawling Twitter would suggest it’s a symbol for the worst excesses of the current moment.

Here are some of the most bosoted voices criticising the launch.

Today, Jeff Bezos slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God – in a rocket that looked especially offensive for the job, writes Andrew Naughtie for Independent Voices.

“New Shepard, the semi-reusable craft that blasted Bezos and his co-passengers just beyond the boundary of Earth’s atmosphere, wasn’t just phallic: it was practically a sculpture of an erect penis. The tweets wrote themselves, from the gobsmacked to the smirking to the downright joyous to deft renderings of the rocket as, well, exactly what it looked like.”

Caling it a “philanthropic initiative”, Jeff Bezos says he is launching a new award. He criticises people who question people’s “character or motives” rather than questioning their ideas.

Instead we should “question ideas”, he says. Ad hominem attacks “don’t work” – they’ve been around for a long time but have been amplified by social media, he says.

“But we do have role models,” he says.

He will be giving $100 million to an awardee who can then give it to the non-profits of their choice.

This time, there are two winners.

The first is Van Jones. He says he will be giving the money to “grassroots” people to help them “connect with the geniuses who have disrupted the space industry” and other things – and using that to “disrupt poverty”.

The second is José Andrés, the chef and humanitarian. He says is “honoured”, and “really grateful for this award”, and seems to be on the edge of tears as he speaks.