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Jeff Bezos trolled for wearing cowboy hat to space: 'Dumbest looking thing ever'

When Jeff Bezos exited the capsule, he was wearing his cowboy hat as he high-fived a staff member at the landing site, reminiscent of a Hollywood movie moment

Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Later, he moved to Houston, Texas, with his family. Both cities and states have the cowboy heritage. And the Amazon founder seemed to want to honor that as he embarked upon his spaceflight donning a cowboy hat.

Ariane Cornell, the director of Astronaut and Orbital Sales at Blue Origin, provided commentary as Bezos and his three crewmates prepared to fly from a desert site in West Texas on an 11-minute trip to the edge of space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard. Cornell said, pointing at his cowboy hat in her commentary, “He’s a true Texan at heart -- we call it ‘The Ranch’ down here. We like to incorporate that into a lot of what we do in the spirit that we have down here at our launch site. 

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Bezos and his crew, which included both the youngest and the oldest person to go to space, rose more than 60 miles into the sky above West Texas. The rocket and capsule, named New Shepard after Alan Shepard, the first American in space, rose from the company’s launch site in Van Horn shortly before 9.15 am.

The capsule detached from the rocket at an altitude of about 47 miles. Both pieces continued to coast upward, passing the 62-mile boundary. Bezos and the passengers – his brother Mark Bezos, former pilot and flight instructor Mary Wallace Funk, and an 18-year-old from the Netherlands called Oliver Daemen – unbuckled and floated around the capsule, cheering in the capsule as they experienced about four minutes of free fall. “You have a very happy crew up here, I want you to know,” Bezos said as the capsule descended.

The booster landed vertically. The capsule then descended until it set down gently. The whole thing lasted about 11 minutes. The four passengers exited the capsule just after 9.30 am. As Bezos exited the capsule, he once again appeared in his cowboy hat. And in a scene reminiscent of a Hollywood action film, Bezos, wearing the hat, high-fived a staff member at the landing site. 

Netizens, of course, had their own not-so-nice views about this hat. “Never would’ve pegged Jeff Bezos as a cowboy hat guy but it really does make his employee culture make more sense,” said a Twitter user. Another Twitter user wrote, “Jeff Bezos in a cowboy hat is the dumbest looking thing ever.” One person tweeted, “Nobody looks weirder in a cowboy hat than Jeff Bezos.” One Twitter user also said, “The first thing aliens have seen is Jeff Bezos wearing a cowboy hat.”

“I’m gonna be so pissed if Jeff Bezos takes that cowboy hat and declares himself the first space cowboy,” one person wrote on Twitter. Another person tweeted, “It's not the first time a guy has lasted for 11 minutes and then afterwards put on a cowboy hat and high-fived a bunch of people, and it won't be the last.” One Twitter user also commented, “Jeff Bezos, mistakenly thinking he is cool with the Cowboy hat on, emerges from Blue Origin after going to Space.”