Dog and pony show...
Launching on a rocket to get just above the altitude to be declared space and coming back down is BS. I equate that to a more expensive version of the balloon ride at Disney Springs where they tether the balloon and send you up for a few minutes before dragging you back down. It serves no purpose other than stroking egos that don’t need to be stroked. When they actually go to orbit and do some work instead of being “amazed” at the view...then they’ll get my respect.
This is just the space tourism branch of Blue Origin.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn successfully launched their first payload into orbit in January. However, the first stage didn’t return as expected.
From Wikipedia, Alan Shepherd, first American in space:
Unlike Gagarin’s 108-minute orbital flight in a Vostok spacecraft three times the size of Freedom 7,[71] Shepard stayed on a suborbital trajectory for the 15-minute flight, which reached an altitude of 101.2 nautical miles (116.5 statute miles; 187.4 kilometers), and then fell to a splashdown 263.1 nautical miles (302.8 statute miles; 487.3 kilometers) down the Atlantic Missile Range.[79]