Can you even call yourself a billionaire if you don’t have a space program?

Seriously, everyone’s doing it.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is scouting landing locations on Mars, Richard Branson has been threatening to become the first passenger aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo for a while now, and Jeff Bezos has his sights set on the moon.

Amazon founder Bezos has a space company called Blue Origin, and on Tuesday, he revealed his plans for space travel and the team he plans on using to do it.

The last astronaut to set foot on the moon was way back in 1972, for a point of reference.

Here’s Space.com:

The U.S. companies Draper, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman will join Blue Origin’s bid to build a crewed lunar lander for Artemis, NASA’s project to return astronauts to the moon by 2024, Bezos said.

“We could not ask for better partners,” Bezos told a crowd here at the 70th International Astronautical Congress. “This is a national team for a national priority.”

Blue Origin’s mission follows on from NASA’s call for proposals last month.

According to Bezos, Blue Origin will lead its lunar lander team and provide the Descent Element that will ultimately carry a crew to the moon’s surface. The descent stage will use the company’s new BE-7 engine and a design derived from the robotic Blue Moon lander Bezos unveiled earlier this year.

Here’s the big unveiling of the Blue Moon lunar lander:

According to Quartz, Bezos believes that reusable rockets are the key to making space travel for affordable in the long run.

“You cannot start an important space company in your dorm room today,” Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said this morning. “The reason that is impossible is the price of admission is too high. We need more of the infrastructure to be deployed.”

I didn’t know we wanted people starting space companies in their dorm rooms. You learn something new every day.

Also, check out this animation of Blue Moon in space:

Recruiting Lockheed to the team will give Bezos a massive advantage, but it’s still unclear whether NASA will have enough money to meet the Trump administration’s 2024 landing goal.

Congress’ unfinished spending plans for next year now fund only about 40% of the space agency’s requested downpayment for the Artemis program. And NASA won’t even be able to say how much the entire program will cost until next year.

It looks promising, though.

“We felt that such an ambitious mission called for a new approach and a team effort,” Gary Napier, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson, told Quartz.

“With the recent NASA award to produce six more Orion spacecraft missions, Lockheed Martin can leverage Orion technology, experience and supply chain to provide the safest Crew Module for Artemis.”

Looks like Blue Origin could be taking up residency on the moon in the very near future.

[sources:space.com&quartz]