Bezos unveils lunar lander mockup

WASHINGTON: Amazon.com and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos yesterday unveiled a mockup of a lunar lander he said could be ready in time to meet United States Vicepresident Mike Pence’s call to return to the moon by 2024.

The lander, known as Blue Moon, would be able to carry up to 6.5 tonnes to the lunar surface with a ‘‘stretch tank variant’’, Bezos said during a glitzy event in Washington, DC, that featured twinkling lights in side curtains and blue vertical lights along the floor.

Bezos said Pence’s call to return to the moon was the ‘‘right thing to do’’.

‘‘We can help meet that timeline, but only because we started three years ago,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s time to go back to the moon, this time to stay.’’

Pence called in March for the US to send astronauts back to the moon within the next five years. Nasa has been working on a massive rocket called the Space Launch System, but development is over budget and behind schedule. That rocket was intended to take crews to the moon and beyond.

Pence has voiced support for rockets developed by private industry, saying that if commercial rockets ‘‘are the only way to get American astronauts to the moon in the next five years, then commercial rockets it will be.’’

Another tech mogul, Tesla and SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk, has laid out a plan to fly humans to Mars by 2024. — TCA