So to protect Earth, Amazon founder/CEO Jeff Bezos—who has a side gig as owner of space company Blue Origin —announced today that he wants to utilize the planet for what it does best: keeping humans alive.
At an invite-only press event in Washington, D.C., Bezos announced a massive vision for the future in which “Earth is zoned residential and light industry,” with heavy industry and mining moving to space.
But even a gentrified Earth won’t be enough to support the ballooning human population.
So Bezos is also proposing a constellation of space stations modeled after ideas from his former Princeton professor, Gerard O’Neill.
Related: Why Jeff Bezos is moonstruck to predict a trillion people living in space.
Blue Origin has been vague about plans for New Glenn, but today Bezos announced that its first flight will be in 2021.
Blue Origin has been working on the design for three years, said Bezos. »