Jeff Bezos unveils rocket company Blue Origin's new lunar lander

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

last updated 10 May 2019

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."

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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.

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