Lauren Sanchez Bezos flashed a wide grin as she and her billionaire husband Jeff Bezos attended her daughter's high-school graduation in Los Angeles on Thursday. Sanchez Bezos, 56, wore a simple black spaghetti-strap dress and carried a sweater over her arm to the academic celebration at the $58,541-a-year Crossroads School for Arts and Science.
The ceremony took place just hours before a rocket built by Blue Origin, the space exploration firm controlled by Jeff Bezos, 62, exploded in a dramatic fireball in Florida. Lauren kept her husband close by as they mingled with other parents at the ceremony in Santa Monica. Bezos kept it casual with a blue polo shirt and dark slacks, wearing his signature sunglasses at the outdoor event.
Lauren showed herself to be a doting mother as she was seen taking photos on her phone and keeping a wide, overjoyed smile on her face throughout. Her daughter Ella Whitesell, who will be attending New York University, also graduated alongside other celebrities' children, including Jessica Alba's daughter Honor Warren and chef Giada De Laurentiis' daughter Jade Marie De Laurentiis Thompson.
Whitesell will be studying an individualized study program at NYU's famous Gallatin school. Warren will be studying English and film studies at Yale University, while De Laurentiis Thompson will study acting at NYU.
Blue Origin Rocket Explosion
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket erupted into a giant fireball while undergoing a 'hotfire test' on Launch Pad 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday. Bezos, who is worth $277 billion, said it is 'too early to know the root cause' of the accident, which sent flames and debris exploding high into the sky.
The rocket, which measures 320 feet tall, had been designed to launch 48 Amazon satellites into low-Earth orbit. But there are concerns the catastrophic failure could now have repercussions for NASA's Artemis moon mission. Blue Origin was recently awarded the contract for NASA's moon lander, with expectations that it will launch on one of its rockets later this year. This is a crucial step in building a permanent 'city on the moon,' as the main purpose of the lander is to carry cargo and scientific equipment to the lunar surface.
'We will provide information on any impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs as it becomes available,' said Jared Isaacman, the NASA administrator. 'Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying,' Bezos vowed on X. 'It’s worth it.'
Rocket Details and Impact
The rocket that was destroyed on Thursday night was the third-ever New Glenn rocket, named after John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit Earth. It was manufactured at the company's nearby factory on Merritt Island. Blue Origin has not announced a target liftoff date for the mission, but the rocket had been slated to launch as early as June 4, according to a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory.
The agency had just cleared the heavy-lift rocket last week for the mission after a different issue on its third flight, in which the upper stage was not able to put its payload into the correct orbit after one of its two engines malfunctioned, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The scheduled launch would be the first of 24 such missions, with Blue Origin CEO Jeff Limp indicating earlier this year that his goal was to fly at least eight missions in 2026 alone. It is unclear how the rocket explosion may now affect those plans, after it heavily damaged the launch pad.
