Not to be upstaged by SpaceX, Jeff Bezos of private space company Blue Origin also plans to send a spacecraft to the moon by 2020. SpaceX announced last week that two paying customers will be sent to the moon and back aboard the new Crew Dragon spacecraft by the same year.

Apart from this, NASA is ready to carry out the first flight test of its Orion spacecraft for its lunar mission and the European Space Agency is also planning to build a lunar moon village.

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Bezos who is also Amazon's CEO envisions a new space shipment service courtesy of Blue Origin with cargo supply missions that can carry up to 10,000 pounds of supplies, not only to the International Space Station but also to future human settlements on the moon and beyond. More specifically, Blue Origins revealed developmental details of its Blue Moon spacecraft which is slated for its first flight in 2020.

The Blue Moon spacecraft was first revealed in 2016 when Bezos received an award during Aviation Week's annual Laureates banquet, receiving Aviation Week's 2016 Space Laureate award. This award represents the outstanding technological innovation of the New Shepard suborbital rocket for its successful launches and more importantly, its reusable rocket capability by landing back on Earth. 

Now, the Blue Moon cargo lander will be launched by the New Shepard rocket and also carry out a soft landing on the surface of the moon. The lander will also possess an 11,000 pound thrust using liquid oxygen and methane engines and propellant that are currently being developed by Blue Origin engineers.

According to Bezos, we are also hoping to become partners with NASA for a new program with Blue Origin called Blue Moon. We hope to conduct this mission and provide a cargo delivery service for the moon and for future lunar human settlements.

The Blue Moon spacecraft is not only compatible with the New Shepard rocket but it can also be launched with other rockets such as NASA's Space Launch System, the Atlas V rocket of United Launch Alliance and also SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. In the meantime, Blue Origin plans to send the Blue Moon spacecraft perched atop other rockets mentioned above while the space company develops its New Glenn heavy lift rocket.

These private space companies' overly ambitious moon missions are considered an extreme feat if they hit their target 2020 deadline launch. These missions are also crucial for NASA to continue space exploration beyond lower Earth orbit especially when it comes to bringing humans and precious supply cargo for future human colonies on the moon and soon in Mars.