In a rare showing of Russian hospitality, the country offered Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos a flight around the moon for just $200 million. Foor most, that would be a once in a lifetime opportunity, albeit an expensive one. Bezo’s however, had no interest in Russia’s offer. Perhaps their Soyuz craft was simply unworthy for the American billionaire.
BEZOS TO SPACE WITH BLUE ORIGIN NOT RUSSIA
It would be insane to think Jeff Bezos has no interest in space travel. As the CEO of spaceflight company Blue Origin, you would hope that he finds the concept intriguing. That being said, it’s a bit curious why he passed up the chance to travel with Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft. According to science journalist Alan Boyle, Bezos has every intention to go to space, but only on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. According to representatives of the company, New Shepard hopes to carry humans by 2017. After all, Bezos stated that the whole reason for starting Blue Origin was to make spaceflight cheap, safe and accessible to the mass market. Apparently, the Soyuz capsule does not meet these requirements.
IS THE SOYUZ CAPSULE UNFIT FOR SPACE TRAVEL?
Russia’s Soyuz capsule routinely takes humans into space, yet Bezos felt the need to turn down the offer from Russia. In the past, the capsule has flown some rich space tourists to the ISS, so it’s certainly has a proven track record. According to Bezos, it wasn’t a trip to the ISS that concerned him, but one beyond the moon. Russia offered him the chance for a lunar flyby for $200 million. Even for a billionaire, that much money isn’t easy to part with. Above all, a flight of that capability for Soyuz has never been tested. Upon requesting a test flight for the capsule, Russian then said they would do so for $400 million. Bezos politely declined.
JEFF BEZOS NARROWLY AVOIDS RUSSIAN SCAM
As the founder of two major companies, Amazon, and Blue Origin, it’s safe to say that Bezos knows a thing or two about money. He saw the Russian scam from far away and wisely avoided it. Perhaps their intentions were good, but let’s face it, the Russian’s don’t exactly have a clean history regarding secrecy and the United States. This very well could have been some grand, galactic espionage ploy in order to steal the companies plans and complete the Russian dream of world domination. More likely, it would just be two space geeks talking rockets.
