BLUE Origin, the private rocket-maker run by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, has teased its next space adventure with a cryptic Twitter post. The tweet shows a picture of the doomed ship captained by famed Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, alongside a date: May 9, 2019. That means we’ve got just over a week until what […]
BLUE Origin, the private rocket-maker run by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, has teased its next space adventure with a cryptic Twitter post.
The tweet shows a picture of the doomed ship captained by famed Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, alongside a date: May 9, 2019.
That means we’ve got just over a week until what will likely be a major announcement from Blue Origin, which already has ambitious plans to soon fire paying tourists into space.
It’s successfully launched several test rockets already and promises to send up its first crewed flight later this year.
Blue Origin’s tourist trips will take passengers to the edge of space for a couple of minutes before shepherding them back to Earth – but the firm isn’t stopping there.
It’s already signed a deal with Nasa to build a robotic moon lander, dubbed Blue Moon.
The unmanned craft will be capable of dropping off payloads of up to five tons on the lunar surface, and will pull off its first moon landing in 2024, according to Blue Origin.
Little else is known about the mission, but that could change next week if the firm’s latest tweet is anything to go by.
Sir Ernest Shackleton, whose 1912 ship Endurance is shown in the post, gives his name to a 13-mile-wide impact crater on the moon’s south pole.
The Shackleton crater has been earmarked as a potential spot for a future moon base by scientists.
That’s because it contains lots of frozen water, which could be extracted for fuel, and is bathed in sunlight 93% of the time, making it an ideal location for solar-powered machinery.
Helping build a lunar base – which Nasa hopes to construct by 2030 – makes a lot of sense for Blue Origin.
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Bezos has repeatedly promised to get millions of people working and living in space by moving mining and other heavy industry to spots like the Moon.
Alongside Blue Moon, the company is working on a new long-distance rocket called New Armstrong.
It’s named after Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the lunar surface, and could also feature in next Thursday’s announcement.
We won’t know for sure until May 9, so keep a watchful eye on Blue Origin’s socials until then.
As for the post, let’s hope its heavy-handed reference to Sir Ernest doesn’t come back to bite the company.
The British/Irish explorer was best known for averting disaster when his entire expedition got jammed in Antarctic ice in 1915.
Sir Ernest heroically led his crew to safety on South Georgia Island by guiding them on an 830-mile journey through frigid seas in a single small lifeboat.
It’s thought at least three people died – a toll we’re sure Blue Origin will want to steer clear of on its first manned missions.
Nasa revealed plans for a permanent moon base last year, with boss Jim Bridenstine declaring “we want lots of humans in space”.
It recently picked Blue Origin rival SpaceX to front a world-first mission to deflect a hazardous space rock by crashing a spaceship into it in 2022.
And here are the space mysteries that Nasa simply can’t explain.
Are you excited about next week’s Blue Origin announcement? Let us know in the comments!
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