Space industry salutes Jeff Bezos with prestigious award

Jeff Bezos on Tuesday receive a prestigious award in the emerging space industry for his “historic firsts” and reusability in spaceflight.

The Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) founder’s Kent-based company Blue Origin last year completed the first successful soft landing of a rocket and developed a reusable liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engine, which is used in the company’s New Shepard spacecraft.

The Heinlein Prize – named for American science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein – awards accomplishments in commercial space. It has only been award two times before, first in 2006 to Peter Diamandis for the first manned commercial vehicle to fly to space and, most recently, to Bezos’ commercial space rival Elon Musk for the first privately-developed launch vehicle to orbit the Earth.

“Robert Heinlein inspired millions with his visionary — and incredibly entertaining — stories, and it’s an honor for all of us at Blue Origin to receive this award,” Bezos said in a statement. “Heinlein foresaw a thriving future with humans throughout the solar system. We won’t stop working to make that vision come true.”

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