Jeff Bezos To Raise Apollo 11 Engines From The Ocean Depths

Of all the Apollo missions, Apollo 11 is certainly the most famous. The Apollo 11 mission is the one that put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Apollo 11 launched in 1969 and the astronauts roared into space aboard a Saturn V rocket. Shortly after liftoff, the five massive engines on the Saturn V rocket detached and fell into the ocean as designed.

Billionaire Internet mogul Jeff Bezos has announced that he has funded a project with private money that has found the resting place of the giant Apollo 11 rocket engine. The engine is 14,000 feet below the surface of the ocean and Bezos plans to bring those engines back to the surface. It's not clear where or how Bezos and other members of the project discovered the engines and identified them specifically as being from Apollo 11.

Bezos has apparently acknowledged that the engines are the property of NASA and hopes that they will be displayed in museums. NASA notes that it hasn't been formally contacted by Bezos and is waiting on more information. There is no information on when the engines will be raised or what condition they're in. The five engines in question produced 7.7 million pounds of thrust.

"We don't know yet what condition these engines might be in," Bezos wrote. "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."

[via AFP]