According to a March 20, 2013 article in Wired, an expedition organized by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has recovered two of the mighty F1 engines that powered the Apollo astronauts to the moon more than 40 years ago. After refurbishing them, Bezos hopes to put them on display at the Seattle Museum of Flight.
The F1s were the mightiest rocket engines ever created, capable of putting out 1.5 million pounds of thrust. They were clustered in the first stage of the Saturn V, which separated during each flight to fall into the Atlantic Ocean. There they have stayed for decades.
Bezos, who is running his own private space program called Blue Origin, has been planning to recover the engines for at least a year. The two engines were located at the bottom of the Atlantic, photographed in situ, and then brought up piece by piece.
In a way Bezos has achieved the modern version of a treasure hunt. But instead of Spanish doubloons or artifacts from the age of sail, he has recovered pieces of history from quite a different age of exploration. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden was moved to congratulate Bezos and his team, noting that the space agency shares in the excitement of the engines’ recovery and anticipation of seeing them put on display for the public.
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