Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez have something new to celebrate!
The billionaire Amazon founder, 61, and the former news anchor and philanthropist, 55, celebrated the successful launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on Thursday, Jan. 16. Sánchez reflected on the moment in a sweet Instagram post, which included an image of the couple sharing an embrace.
“Thinking about these moments at the launch. From intense focus, to pure joy, to that incredible moment New Glenn lit up the sky,” she captioned the post. “CONGRATULATIONS to the entire Blue team .. what a first launch 🚀💙.”
The launch at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida saw the rocket reach orbit, the primary goal for the test flight.
“I’m incredibly proud New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt,” Dave Limp, Blue Origin CEO, said in a statement. “We knew landing our booster, So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance, on the first try was an ambitious goal. We’ll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring. Thank you to all of Team Blue for this incredible milestone.”
Of course, Sánchez has a love of flying herself — and just last year, the helicopter pilot opened up to PEOPLE about her upcoming all-female flight to space.
“I’m extremely excited,” she said. “We haven’t announced the date yet, but it will be this year. And we’ll start announcing my fellow astronauts in the coming months.”
“I think I’ll come back from that mission seeing the world from a completely new perspective, and be able to share that perspective. And hopefully that will translate into other people seeing it, and wanting to help save the planet,” added Sánchez, who is also the vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund.
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PEOPLE first confirmed that Bezos and Sánchez were dating in January 2019, and the couple got engaged in May 2023.
In a recent appearance on the Today show, Sanchez shared that she’s preparing for her wedding to Bezos like most other women do — with Pinterest.
“I’m just like every other bride,” she said, adding that she’s thinking about the dress.
Although the couple haven’t shared many details about their upcoming nuptials, Bezos did recently shut down rumors that the pair were set to marry in a lavish ceremony close to Christmas.
“The old adage ‘don’t believe everything you read’ is even more true today than it ever has been,” he captioned a December social media post.
Back in December, it was Bezos’ turn to share a sweet tribute to his fiancée in honor of her 55th birthday. In the post, he celebrated her “incredible year,” which included finding success as a children’s book author with The Fly Who Flew to Space.
“You set your mind to writing a children’s book and now you’re a NYT best selling author,” he wrote in a post to Instagram. “I have a feeling your next trip around the sun will be just as amazing. Happy birthday, baby!”
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