Jeff Bezos, world's richest man, launches inaugural space voyage - watch

American billionaire Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin spacecraft took off from a desert site in West Texas on an 11-minute voyage to the edge of space, nine days after British rival Richard Branson took off in his competing flight.

Branson got to space first, but Bezos is due to fly higher – 62 miles (100 km) for Blue Origin compared to 53 miles (86 km) for Virgin Galactic – in what experts call the world's first unpiloted space flight with an all-civilian crew.