Jeff Bezos Says U.S. Could Reach Moon by 2028 as Blue Origin Expands Plans

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said he believes the United States can land humans on the moon in 2028, putting a possible American return ahead of China as Blue Origin develops lunar landers, rockets and orbital infrastructure.

“We have to beat China to the moon, and I believe we will beat China to the moon,” Bezos said in an interview recorded Oct. 7, 2026, at Blue Origin’s facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The interview was published at 7:13 p.m. ET (23:13 UTC).

Bezos described a longer-term vision of a permanent lunar presence supported by recurring cargo missions. “It’ll be a real sustainable lunar base,” he said.

NASA’s current lunar architecture includes Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander, which is targeted for a robotic mission no earlier than fall 2026. NASA has said the demonstration is meant to inform later crewed Artemis missions planned for 2028.

Blue Origin is also developing a crewed Blue Moon lander for Artemis V. NASA’s current Human Landing Systems reference page lists SpaceX for Artemis III and Artemis IV, and Blue Origin for Artemis V.

Lander-development delays, technical problems and integration challenges could affect the schedule. NASA was assessing proposals to accelerate development toward a 2028 landing, but the technical feasibility, financial implications and schedule effects had not been determined.

Bezos’ 2028 statement is a target and personal assessment, not a confirmed launch or landing date. Current NASA plans do not establish that Blue Origin will conduct the first U.S. crewed lunar landing in 2028.

Blue Origin’s lunar plans depend on development, testing and integration of its New Glenn rocket and Blue Moon landers. Bezos said the company is targeting a December 2026 return to flight for New Glenn after a May engine-test explosion. He said the next mission would carry Blue Ring, a spacecraft designed to move payloads between orbits and farther into space.

The company is building three additional launch pads and aims to increase launch frequency from 12 launches per pad annually to 50. Bezos also described longer-term ambitions of daily, hourly and eventually minute-by-minute launches.

Blue Origin has filed with the Federal Communications Commission for authority to deploy and operate as many as 51,600 satellites under Project Sunrise. The filing describes the system as an orbital data center operating in sun-synchronous orbits between 500 kilometers and 1,800 kilometers in altitude.

Bezos said he had personally invested $28 billion in Blue Origin and that the company had raised $10 billion from outside investors for the first time.