Watch Jeff Bezos Reveal Blue Origin’s ‘Blue Moon’ Lander: Video

Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin unveils his privately developed ‘Blue Moon’ lunar lander on May 9, 2019 in Washington D.C.. Credit: Blue Origin

Ken Kremer -- SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM – 13 May 2019

TITUSVILLE, FL-  Billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin rocket company, Amazon and the world’s richest person, has unveiled his vision of returning to the Moon - namely the privately developed ‘Blue Moon’ lander which is being designed to take several tons of cargo and people to the surface of the Moon in the next decade.

Bezos made the Blue Moon lander announcement on May 9, 2019 to a privately held,  limited, and invited only group of media in Washington, D.C. – not including Space UpClose.

He unveiled a full scale mockup of the commercial Blue Moon lander on stage thus indicating its scale to humans.

Blue Origin is a private rocket company founded and privately funded by Jeff Bezos by selling shares of Amazon – reportedly to the tune of about $1 Billion per year.

“This is Blue Moon.  We’ve been working on this lander for three years, it’s a very large lander. It’ll soft land in a precise way, 3.6 metric tons (7,936 pounds) onto the lunar surface. The stretched tank variant of it will soft land 6.5 metric tons (14,330 pounds) onto the lunar surface,” said Bezos. 

Bezos says he started development of Blue Moon three years ago and he will offer the vehicle to NASA to support the goal of landing humans on the moon by 2024 as part of the newly named Project Artemis.

“I love this. It’s the right thing to do. And we can help meet that timeline, but only because we started three years ago. It’s time to go back to the moon, this time to stay.”

Here is a YouTube video of the full Jeff Bezos presentation from Blue Origin:

Video Caption: Jeff Bezos full presentation announcing Blue Moon lunar lander on May 9, 2019. Credit: Blue Origin

“Today, our founder shared our vision to go to space to benefit Earth. We must return to the Moon—this time to stay. We’re ready to support @NASA in getting there by 2024 with #bluemoon,” Blue Origin tweeted.

Artists concept of Blue Origin ‘Blue Moon’ lunar lander. Credit: Blue Origin

Here a description of the ‘Blue Moon’ lunar lander and BE-7 engine that will power the descent stage - from the Blue Origin press release sent to Space UpClose.

Blue Moon lunar lander: 

Blue Origin announced Blue Moon, its large lunar lander capable of delivering multiple metric tons of payload to the lunar surface based on configuration and mission. The cargo variant revealed today can carry 3.6 metric tons to the surface. We have also designed a variant of the lander that can stretch to be capable of carrying a 6.5-metric-ton, human-rated ascent stage. Blue also announced it can meet the current Administration's goal of putting Americans on the Moon by 2024 with the Blue Moon lunar lander. 

BE-7 engine: The Blue Moon lunar lander will be powered by the BE-7 engine, a new addition to Blue Origin’s family of engines. The BE-7’s 40 kN (10,000 lbf) thrust is designed for large lunar payload transport. The engine’s propellants are a highly-efficient combination of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The BE-7 will have its first hotfire this summer. The engine will be available for sale to other companies for use in in-space and lander applications.

The BE-7 engine for Blue Moon lunar lander. Credit: Blue Origin

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Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC area, active in outreach and interviewed regularly on TV and radio about space topics.

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