Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos (Reuters)
Jeff Bezos’ private space company is getting ready for liftoff.
The Amazon founder’s Blue Origin has won a contract to supply engines for United Launch Alliance, according to a Thursday report.
Blue Origin’s massive BE-4 engine has been selected to power the joint Boeing and Lockheed Martin venture’s Vulcan rocket, according to the report.
The deal puts Blue Origin in sniffing distance of valuable Pentagon contracts — United Launch Alliance has taken a majority of US military and spy satellites into orbit over the past decade, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The contract is validation for Bezos, now the world’s richest man, who for years has been liquidating $1 billion of Amazon’s stock annually to fund his interplanetary dreams.
In addition to launching satellites, Bezos has his eye on taking tourists to outer space, with a goal of bringing humanity to far-away planets.
“The long-term vision is millions of people living and working in space. We need a space-faring civilization,” Bezos said in 2017.
This story originally appeared in the New York Post.