Skip to main content

Jeff Bezos unveils Blue Moon lander in grand plan to return to lunar surface 

Introducing Blue Moon

Earth’s nearest neighbor has been getting a whole lot of attention lately, and now Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos has joined the club with the grand unveiling on Thursday afternoon of the Blue Moon lunar lander.

Recommended Videos

At a Washington Convention Center event less than a mile from a White House whose occupants also recently expressed a strong desire to return to the moon, Bezos pulled the wraps off a mock-up of Blue Moon, a spacecraft that he said will be able to land on the lunar surface by 2024.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Bezos said that a larger version of the lander will be able to carry astronauts to the moon, deliver payloads to the surface, and deploy as many as four rovers. It will also act as a launch platform for moon-orbiting satellites.

Speaking to an audience comprising NASA personnel and potential Blue Moon customers, Bezos said: “It’s time to go back to the moon — this time to stay.”

During his presentation, Bezos showed off a model of one of the proposed rovers and also unveiled a new BE-7 engine designed to propel the lander. In comments reported by CNN, Bezos said Blue Origin had been working on the development of Blue Moon for the last three years, adding that it hopes to test fire the engine for the first time this summer.

Bezos said the company’s work on its New Shepard rocket technology, as well as on its far more powerful New Glenn booster, has helped it to learn much about how to take on its most ambitious project to date.

No human has stepped onto the surface of the moon since NASA’s final Apollo mission in 1972, but following Vice President Mike Pence’s speech in March 2019 in which he stated the administration’s desire to return, NASA has started work on a mission that could take place within five years. The space agency will be considering commercial gear for the mission, with Blue Origin hoping to be at the front of the line.

The big question now is whether Blue Origin can deliver on time. Target dates for so many space-based projects — especially the more ambitious ones — end up slipping, a fact not lost on Bezos, who insists his team will be able to meet the deadline.

This isn’t the first time the Blue Origin owner has put the moon front and center. Two years ago, he was talking about creating a human settlement there, as part of an even more grandiose vision. “I think that if you go to the moon first, and make the moon your home, then you can get to Mars more easily,” Bezos said at the time. On Thursday, his bold plan took one giant leap forward. Now all eyes are on whether he can deliver.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Blue Origin’s heavy-lift New Glenn rocket raised on launchpad for first time
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.

Blue Origin’s heavy-lift New Glenn rocket has been raised on the launchpad for the first time as part of preparations for its maiden flight later this year.

The spaceflight company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos shared a photo (above) showing the rocket on the pad at Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Read more
How to watch Blue Origin’s rocket return to flight
New Shepard lifts off from Launch Site One in West Texas for the NS-16 mission on July 20, 2021.

UPDATE: Blue Origin scrubbed Monday's launch attempt to deal with a ground system issue. It's now targeting Tuesday, December 19, with a launch window opening at 10:37 a.m. CT (11:37 a.m. ET/8:37 a.m. PT).

The rocket company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will launch its sub-orbital New Shepard vehicle for the first time in 15 months on Tuesday, and the whole event will be live-streamed.

Read more
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to make first rocket flight since 2022 explosion
New Shepard lifts off from Launch Site One in West Texas for the NS-16 mission on July 20, 2021.

New Shepard launches the first crew, including Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, in a flight to the edge of space in July 2021. Blue Origin / Blue Origin

Blue Origin is aiming to launch its New Shepard rocket as early as next week in what will be its first flight since September 2022, when the vehicle exploded in midair shortly after lift-off.

Read more