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A28 SCIENCE
Monday 13 May 2019
Amazon’s Bezos says he’ll send a spaceship to the moon

By SETH BORENSTEIN lower profile than the one in
AP Science Writer the 1960s. It involves private
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ama- companies, new countries
zon tycoon Jeff Bezos said and a NASA return mission
Thursday he’s going to to place astronauts back
send a spaceship to the on the lunar surface by
moon, joining a resurgence 2024.
of lunar interest half a cen- While a $30 million prize for
tury after people first set private companies to send
foot there. robotic probes to the moon
Bezos said his space com- went unclaimed last year,
pany Blue Origin will land one of the competitors,
a robotic ship the size of from an Israeli private non-
a small house, capable of profit, crashed last month
carrying four rovers and as it tried to land.
using a newly designed China has landed a rover
rocket engine and souped- on the moon’s far side.
up rockets. It would be fol- SpaceX last year an-
lowed by a version that nounced plans to send a
could bring people to the Japanese businessman
moon along the same around the moon in 2023.
timeframe as NASA’s pro- And the Israeli nonprofit
posed 2024 return. said it will give it a second
Bezos, who was dwarfed Jeff Bezos speaks in front of a model of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander, Thursday, May 9, shot.
by his mock-up of the Blue 2019, in Washington. The first successful moon
Moon vehicle at his presen- Associated Press landing was by the Soviet
tation Thursday, said, “This blue-tinted lighting before Blue Origin missions. ing with Blue Origin, said Union in 1966 with Luna 9,
is an incredible vehicle and Bezos unveiled the boxy Blue Origin officials gave it plans for a 2023 launch followed by the U.S. four
it’s going to the moon.” ship with four long and spin- conflicting answers to without people. months later. NASA put the
He added: “It’s time to go dly landing legs. questions about when the Blue Origin in 2017 revealed first — and only — people
back to the moon. This time Bezos, who also owns The company would land on plans to send an un- on the moon in the Apol-
to stay.” Washington Post, walked the moon with and without manned, reusable rocket, lo program, starting with
The announcement for the off the stage without pro- people. Blue Origin Vice capable of carrying 10,000 Apollo 11 in July 1969.
usually secretive space viding details, including President Clay Mowry said pounds (4,500 kilograms) of “The next leap in space will
company came with all launch dates, customers 2024 was not a concrete payload, to the moon. The be fueled by commercial
the glitz of an Apple prod- and the plan for humans goal for a mission with peo- company had a successful companies like Blue Origin
uct launch in a darkened on his rockets. He spent ple and said it was more up launch earlier this month, and commercial innova-
convention ballroom be- more time talking about to NASA as a potential cus- reusing one of its New tion,” said former Obama
dazzled with shimmering his dream of future gen- tomer. Shepard rockets, which White House space adviser
stars on its walls. Astronauts erations living on orbiting Former U.S. Rep. Robert barely goes to the edge of Phil Larson, now an assistant
and other space luminaries space station colonies than Walker, a private space space, for a fifth time. dean of engineering at the
sat in the audience under on concrete details about consultant who is work- The new moon race has a University of Colorado.q

Scientists liken Anglo-Saxon

burial site to King Tut’s tomb

By JAMES BROOKS Saxon burial discovery in even come as far away
Associated Press more than 70 years. as Sri Lanka and the Indian
SOUTHEND-ON-SEA, Eng- Treasures unearthed at the subcontinent,” said Liz Bar-
land (AP) — An under- site include a golden belt ham, a senior conservator
ground chamber discov- buckle, the remnants of a at Museum of London Ar-
ered accidentally by road harp-like instrument known chaeology who worked on
workers appears to be the as a lyre, gleaming glass- the dig. Sophie Jackson, di-
site of the earliest Christian ware and an elaborate rector of research and en-
A golden belt buckle uncovered at an Anglo-Saxon burial site
in the village of Prittlewell in 2003 on display at Southend Central royal burial ever found in water vessel from the east- gagement at Museum of
Museum in Southend, England, Thursday, May 8, 2019. Britain, archaeologists say, ern Mediterranean, per- London Archaeology, said
Associated Press calling it the Anglo-Saxon haps Syria. the discovery is “our equiv-
equivalent of King Tut- Researchers say the luxury alent of Tutankhamun’s
ankhamun’s tomb. items indicate the cham- tomb.” While the identity of
The chamber, uncovered ber’s occupant was a man its occupant is unknown, lo-
between a road and a rail- of high standing, possibly cals have nicknamed him
way line in the southeastern a prince. Two small gold- the “Prittlewell Prince.”
English village of Prittlewell foil crosses found at the Fragments of tooth enamel
in 2003, turned out to be a head of the coffin suggest — the only human remains
1,400-year-old tomb. a Christian burial. uncovered — revealed he
New details were published “There are luxury imports was over 6 years old, and
Thursday about the finding, that have come from as far the size of the coffin sug-
which archaeologists say is away as Syria. Some of the gests he was about 5 foot 8
the most important Anglo- raw materials might have inches (1.73 meters) tall. q