NASA file
F-1 rocket engines undergo processing in advance of their installation on NASA's Saturn 5 rocket. Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos says his team has located the F-1 engines that were used on Apollo 11's rocket. The artifacts are sitting on the Atlantic Ocean floor, at a depth of 14,000 feet, he says.
By Alan Boyle
Amazon.com's billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, says he's funded a successful effort to locate the mammoth rocket engines that sent the Apollo 11 mission on the first leg of its mission to the moon?? and now he's planning to bring them up from the Atlantic Ocean floor.
It's shaping up as the latest high-rolling undersea adventure, alongside film director James Cameron's dive to the deepest spot in the Pacific, British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Oceanic expedition?and the Deepsearch submersible project backed by Google's Eric Schmidt.
Bezos' effortplays off his longtime fascination with outer space ? a passion that is also driving his decade-old Blue Origin rocket venture. Like Blue Origin, the undersea recovery project is being funded from the dot-com billionaire's personal fortune.
The five F-1 rocket engines were on the first stage of Apollo 11's Saturn 5 rocket and dropped into the Atlantic just minutes after liftoff in 1969. Bezos acknowledges that the undersea artifacts, like other hardware associated with the space effort, still belong to NASA ? and?he imagines that one?engine would?go on display at the Smithsonian. But in today's announcement, he says he's asked NASA to consider having another engine go to the Museum of Flight?? which happens to be in Seattle, Amazon.com's hometown.
Here's the full statement from Bezos, via his Bezos Expeditions website.
"The F-1 rocket engine is still a modern wonder ? one and a half million pounds of thrust, 32 million horsepower, and burning 6,000 pounds of rocket grade kerosene and liquid oxygen every second. On July 16, 1969, the world watched as five particular F-1 engines fired in concert, beginning the historic Apollo 11 mission. Those five F-1s burned for just a few minutes, and then plunged back to Earth into the Atlantic Ocean, just as NASA planned. A few days later, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon.
"Millions of people were inspired by the Apollo Program. I was 5 years old when I watched Apollo 11 unfold on television, and without any doubt it was a big contributor to my passions for science, engineering, and exploration. A year or so ago, I started to wonder, with the right team of undersea pros, could we find and potentially recover the F-1 engines that started mankind's mission to the moon?
"I'm excited to report that, using state-of-the-art deep sea sonar, the team has found the Apollo 11 engines lying 14,000 feet below the surface, and we're making plans to attempt to raise one or more of them from the ocean floor. We don't know yet what condition these engines might be in ? they hit the ocean at high velocity and have been in salt water for more than 40 years. On the other hand, they're made of tough stuff, so we'll see.
"Though they've been on the ocean floor for a long time, the engines remain the property of NASA. If we are able to recover one of these F-1 engines that started mankind on its first journey to another heavenly body, I imagine that NASA would decide to make it available to the Smithsonian for all to see. If we're able to raise more than one engine, I've asked NASA if they would consider making it available to the excellent Museum of Flight here in Seattle. (For clarity, I'll point out that no public funding will be used to attempt to raise the engines, as it's being undertaken privately.)
"NASA is one of the few institutions I know that can inspire 5-year-olds. It sure inspired me, and with this endeavor, maybe we can inspire a few more youth to invent and explore.
"We'll keep you posted."
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
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