Amazon chief plans to deliver missions to the Moon

JEFF BEZOS, the world’s richest person, was last night set to unveil plans to establish a base on the Moon.

Blue Origin, the Amazon billionaire’s rocket company, was due to give details about missions to the Moon and a lunar lander at an event in Washington DC.

Mr Bezos, 55, has spoken of his desire to colonise space and enable millions of people to live there.

The company was expected to outline when it hopes to travel to the Moon in an attempt to secure US government funds for lunar missions, according to Reuters.

Mike Pence, US vice-president, has said he wants to put a base on the Moon with US astronauts travelling there by 2024. Astronauts have not set foot on it since 1972.

Speculation about a lunar mission was stoked last month when Blue Origin posted an image of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance on an expedition to Antarctica. An area on the Moon’s south pole, known as the Shackleton crater, is seen as a strong candidate for a solar-powered Moon base because it is exposed to almost perpetual sunlight.

Invitations to the event announced that the company would “give an update on our progress and share our vision of going to space to benefit Earth”.

Mr Bezos, who is worth more than £90 billion and established Blue Origin in 2000, has said the solar system could support a population of 1 trillion human beings.

Blue Origin has said it will send passengers into suborbital space flight this year on its New Shepard rocket. It is also developing a larger rocket, New Glenn, for satellite launches.