Jeff Bezos Lays out Blue Origin’s Moon Shot, Debuts Lunar Lander

May 13, 2019

William Kucinski

During a special presentation, Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos announced the company’s vision for the future of space travel and revealed a large, new, reconfigurable lunar lander capable of delivering payloads to the moon measured in multiple metric tons.

According to the presentation, the cargo variant of the Blue Moon lander can carry 3.6 metric tons to the lunar surface. Another lander variant could potentially stretch to be capable of carrying a 6.5-metric-ton, human-rated ascent stage. Both variants are designed to meet the current goal of the United States of putting Americans on the Moon by 2024.

The lander is divided into a top deck and lower bay area in order to manage a variety of internal and deployable payloads – including those with standard ring port interfaces.

The Blue Moon lunar lander will be powered by Blue Origin’s new 40-kilonetwon BE-7 engine, an additively manufactured, dual-expander style powerplant developed for large lunar payload transport. The engine is fueled by a highly efficient combination of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants that play double duty by powering onboard payloads.

William Kucinski is content editor at SAE International, Aerospace Products Group in Warrendale, Pa. Previously, he worked as a writer at the NASA Safety Center in Cleveland, Ohio and was responsible for writing the agency’s System Failure Case Studies. His interests include literally anything that has to do with space, past and present military aircraft, and propulsion technology.

Contact him regarding any article or collaboration ideas by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..