Jeff Bezos unveils rocket company Blue Origin's new lunar lander
Jeff Bezos revealed his rocket company Blue Origin's new lunar lander, Blue Moon, to the world on Thursday, saying it would help the Trump administration with its goal of getting astronauts back to the moon by 2024.
The Amazon CEO launched Blue Origin in 2000, and the company has been relatively quiet about its operations. Bezos said he visualizes millions of people one day living in space colonies, and while it will be up to future generations to actually build them, Blue Origin can get the infrastructure in place. "This would be an incredible civilization," he said.
Blue Origin has been testing a rocket called the New Shepard, which is designed to take people to space for brief periods of time, and Bezos said tests with passengers will start taking place later this year. The company is also working on a larger rocket, the New Glenn, for satellites, which it will launch in 2021. "We are going to build a road to space," Bezos said. "And then amazing things will happen."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
‘Let 2026 be a year of reckoning’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Why is Iran facing its biggest protests in years?TODAY’S BIG QUESTION Iranians are taking to the streets as a growing movement of civic unrest threatens a fragile stability
-
How prediction markets have spread to politicsThe explainer Everything’s a gamble
-
TikTok secures deal to remain in USSpeed Read ByteDance will form a US version of the popular video-sharing platform
-
Unemployment rate ticks up amid fall job lossesSpeed Read Data released by the Commerce Department indicates ‘one of the weakest American labor markets in years’
-
US mints final penny after 232-year runSpeed Read Production of the one-cent coin has ended
-
Warner Bros. explores sale amid Paramount bidsSpeed Read The media giant, home to HBO and DC Studios, has received interest from multiple buying parties
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial uneaseSpeed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B dealspeed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
