Blue Origin aims to reach the Moon in 2023. When we talk about space exploration and private companies everyone thinks of SpaceX, we should not forget others like Blue Origin, they also have ambitious plans in terms of developing various activities outside our planet. The panorama regarding the presence of private companies in the space race is much richer and more interesting.
The latest example of this is Blue Origin, the company founded by Jeff Bezos, the creator of Amazon, which has had a set goal for years, and it is quite an ambitious one: the Moon. As Bezos said in 2018: “It’s time to go back to the Moon, this time to stay” in the presentation of the Blue Moon lander, a vehicle intends to reach our satellite in 2024, it could be one year ahead of schedule until 2023.
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Let’s remember that one of the main objectives of NASA is to return to the Moon, after the cancellation of the Apollo program, human beings have never set foot on the Moon again. Thus, the Artemis project proposes the objective that 2024 be the year in which we return to our satellite. And this would explain the reason why Blue Origin has advanced its plans by one year.
Blue Origin’s contribution to the Artemis project is, as I mentioned before, the Blue Moon lander, a cargo ship capable of landing on the lunar surface carrying a significant load of supplies, which will serve as great support for the first astronauts to set foot on the Moon in 2024. But in addition to that, the mission would also serve as a kind of dress rehearsal for the first manned mission to the Moon in about half a century.
As far as the mission itself is concerned, the Blue Origin lander is capable of carrying up to a ton of cargo that would include emergency supplies, tools, spare parts and a rover for Artemis’ astronauts to use on the surface. Having a vehicle with this capacity, and which can make multiple deliveries to the lunar surface, both scheduled and especially in times of emergency would be a very important asset when considering the possibility of establishing a permanent base on the Moon.
Blue Origin aims to reach the Moon in 2023. At the moment there’s no evidence proving NASA and Blue Origin have signed any contract. However, it is possible that informal contacts do exist between the two organizations, otherwise, it seems extremely risky for Blue Origin to start such a project. In any case, it seems that the Moon is as “close” again as it was in the late sixties.
