Rocket Engine Part Recovered by Amazon CEO Has Apollo 11 History

I wish the title would leave a little a little room to intrigue you so I could ask you. Do you know what this is?, well guys, this is the base of a Saturn V engine thrust chamber recovered by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and just in case you can't see it, the serial number "Unit No 2044".

This was amazing and although some people think this is nothing more than the expensive hobby of a filthy rich guy (they might be right), I think that Mr. Jeff Bezos is doing something really nice for human history...not to make history, don't get me wrong.

In March 2012, the billionaire entrepreneur underwrote a private — and secret — expedition to find and recover the Apollo engines that launched astronauts Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon.

"I'm thrilled to share some exciting news," Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos wrote Friday (July 19) on his Bezos Expeditions website. "44 years ago tomorrow [July 20] Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, and now we have recovered a critical technological marvel that made it all possible."

So, Mr. Bezos's team was searching for discarded NASA rockets in the Atlantic and finally, in 2013, the team salvaged 2 rockets, and after a very careful inspection, the team realize that they found a part of the rockets that took Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon 44 years ago, on the Apollo 11.

It had to be great to be there. Here I cite, in the words of Mr. Bezos what happened that day.

"One of the conservators who was scanning the objects with a black light and a special lens filter has made a breakthrough discovery – '2044' – stenciled in black paint on the side of one of the massive thrust chambers," wrote Bezos. "2044 is the Rocketdyne serial number that correlates to NASA number 6044, which is the serial number for F-1 Engine #5 from Apollo 11."

Although NASA is retaining ownership of the artifacts and will ultimately decide where they go on museum display, Mr. Bezos expressed interest in having one of the engine's parts displayed at The Museum of Flight in Seattle, which is close to Amazon's headquarters and the offices of Blue Origin, the commercial spaceflight company founded by Bezos in 2000.

Now everything is coming to a logical explanation, this altruistic effort is surely supporting Mr. Bezos plans to set up Amazon to the Moon (one hell of a deal). But, It doesn't matter, after all, he is doing a great thing for us, by spending so much money bringing this awesome part of history back to us and to our children.

Regardless of the final intentions, what if more actions toward history, culture, and education, were carried out by other billionaires. I know they must do several things that never are going to be known by us, but there must be a few, with a few million in change, that could do a lot of good to the world's historical heritage, and they might not be cheap, just frugal (in the end, they are stingy as hell).