Tulsi Gabbard tweets that Bezos should 'stay up there' in space

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Fmr astronaut calls billionaire space race a tie: 'They're both winners right now'

Former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino weighs in on the tourism missions into space following Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos's trip on the aerospace company's New Shepard rocket for its first-ever crewed launch.

Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos safely returned to Earth after a brief launch into space, much to the chagrin of former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.

Prior to Bezos' liftoff Tuesday morning, the former Democratic presidential hopeful tweeted that the world's richest man should stay out there rather than come back and join the rest of humanity.

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"Bezos, please stay up there. Do the world a favor," Gabbard said.

"The only problem I have with Bezos’ Blue Origin space rocket ship into outer space is that it’s going to come back," she added.

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Gabbard has been critical of Bezos in the past. In 2019 she slammed him for not allowing Amazon workers to unionize, and called out Amazon for reporting a large tax rebate after supposedly making $11.2 billion in profit. 

Bezos returned from his brief trek to space before 10 a.m. Eastern Time. He went with his brother Mark Bezos, 82-year-old Mercury 13 aerospace pioneer Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen. Blue Origin said before the flight that the astronauts on board had to undergo training for 14 hours over a 2-day span.

"Our training is comprehensive and gets crew prepped for everything they need to know about the vehicle," Blue Origin lead flight director Steve Lanius said.

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Lanius added that the spaceflight company's astronaut training was fully compliant with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requirements. 

It was Blue Origin's first manned space flight, coming days after Virgin Galactic sent billionaire founder Richard Branson to space.

Fox News' Julia Musto and The Associated Press contributed to this report.