Billionaire Amazon boss Jeff Bezos yesterday unveiled Blue Origin’s lunar lander Blue Moon. The Blue Moon project has been in development for three years, putting it on track for a 2024 landing – making it a rival to Elon Musk’s SpaceX. But the competition between Bezos and Musk appears to have got personal, after the SpaceX CEO sent a lewd tweet about Blue Moon.
Jeff Bezos wants to return Americans to the moon by 2024 with Blue Origin.
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos revealed the ambitious plans for his space company at a highly-anticipated event yesterday.
The billionaire Blue Origin founder began by sharing elaborate concept images of self-sustaining space habitats reminiscent of the Interstellar film.
And Bezos proceeded to unveil a massive model of Blue Origin’s first lunar lander – Blue Moon.
But Bezos’ cavalier competitor Elon Musk lost little time in poking fun, in a rather crude way, at the Blue Moon.
Mr Musk, who is the founder of rival space firm SpaceX, tweeted an altered picture of Blue Moon.
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And instead of reading Blue Moon on the spacecraft’s spherical side, the image in the tweet read “Blue Balls.”
Tesla head Musk has form for his controversial Twitter posts.
And yesterday’s tweet is not even the first time he has trolled Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Amazon last month announced plans to blast more than 3,000 satellites in orbit, to provide internet to “unserved and underserved communities”.
Musk subsequently called Bezos a copycat in a tweet, as SpaceX announced its own plans to launch internet satellites in 2018.
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What is the Blue Origin moon mission?
Blue Moon could ultimately serve as a stepping stone for colonisation of the moon and even deep space, Jeff Bezos has suggested.
Bezos said: “It’s time to go back to the moon, this time to stay,” mirroring a statement made by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
Blue Origin says its lunar lander will be able to carry all sorts of payloads to the surface and can hold “multiple metric tons”.
Blue Origin will “enable a sustained human presence on the moon,” the company said.
And, according to Jeff Bezos, the company already has about six customers.
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The lander builds upon technology the firm has been testing over the past few years in its New Shepard rocket, including propulsion and precision guidance, as well as the vertical landing system.
And Blue Origin is also developing a new rocket engine specifically for its planned moon landings.
The system, called BE-7, has been in the works for three years.
Blue Origin says it could conduct the first test fire as soon as this summer.
Bezos also delved into his visions for human colonisation of the moon and eventually, deep space, touching on the concept of self-sustaining O’Neill colonies exponentially larger than the International Space Station where humans and animals could live.
