Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wants to reduce the price of admission to space and is hoping his aerospace company Blue Origin can help put the first American woman on the moon.
The last manned mission to the moon took place Dec. 11, 1972, when Richard Nixon was president. But NASA in 2011 dismantled the space shuttle program because of funding and a lack of public and political support for the program.
Several privately owned space exploration enterprises have popped up since then, including Bezos'.
He believes colonizing the moon could be the key to saving Earth.
"I think it is important for this planet," Bezos told CBS News during a special on space exploration that aired Tuesday night. "I think it's important for the dynamism of future generations. It is something I care deeply about. And it is something I have been thinking about all my life."
Developing space technologies is critical for a better future, he added.
"We humans have to go to space if we are going to continue to have a thriving civilization," he said. "We have become big as a population, as a species, and this planet is relatively small. We see it in things like climate change and pollution and heavy industry. We are in the process of destroying this planet. And we have sent robotic probes to every planet in the solar system — this is the good one. So, we have to preserve this planet."
But it will be hundreds of years before it is a reality. The first step is space tourism, the billionaire said.
"Everybody who goes to space says they come back a little changed and they realize how beautiful this planet is and how small and fragile it is," Bezos says. "Something that we can't see when we are down here, but from up there it becomes obvious."
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