Sean O'Kane
1:11 PM PST · January 30, 2026
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/blue- ... -the-moon/Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin is pausing its space tourism flights for “no less than two years” in order to focus all of its resources on upcoming missions to the moon, the company announced Friday.
The decision puts a temporary halt on a program that Blue Origin has been using to fly humans past the Kármán line, the recognized boundary of space, for the last five years.
Blue Origin made the announcement just a few weeks ahead of the expected third launch of its New Glenn mega-rocket, which is slated for late February. The company had previously suggested it was going to use the third New Glenn launch to send its robotic lunar lander to the moon, but that spacecraft is still undergoing testing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas.
Since retaking office, President Donald Trump has put pressure on NASA to send astronauts back to the moon before the end of his second term. That has cleared the way for companies other than SpaceX to compete for these missions.
“The decision reflects Blue Origin’s commitment to the nation’s goal of returning to the Moon and establishing a permanent, sustained lunar presence,” the company wrote Friday.
We need a outpost on the moon and then they need to refocus on tourism onto it. This needs to evolve into a colony that grows and expands. Either this or we're pissing into the wind.
