Joining the Thrillionaires 313
Grasshopper system, the New Shepard can land and takeoff
vertically.^411
In 2012, Bezos announced that his company had found
the engines from the Saturn V rocket that launched Neil
Armstrong together with his crew to space. While the
capsule continued to the Moon, the rocket landed in the
Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 14 000 feet [4 300 m]. Bezos
wanted to recover the remaining pieces.^296 “We’ve seen an
underwater wonderland, an incredible sculpture garden of
twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent
end, one that serves testament to the Apollo program,”
Bezos said. “We photographed many beautiful objects in
site and have now recovered many prime pieces. Each
piece we bring on deck conjures for me the thousands of
engineers who worked together back then to do what for all
time had been thought surely impossible.”^295 After a three-
week expedition, the engines were once again above the
surface of the ocean. “Every time I see Jeff, I ask him why
he’s not doing more in space,” Elon said.^67
The type of competition between the companies founded
by the thrillionaires can be defined as a friendly rivalry.
They focus on developing inexpensive access to space,
rather than wasting resources on trying to ruin each other.
“Our competitors are not Paul Allen and Richard Branson,
but Boeing, Lockheed, and the big aerospace companies,”
Elon said. “I’m really glad to see all the activity in en-
trepreneurial space and hopefully this heralds a new era
of space exploration with price and quality improvements
similar to other technology arenas. I do think people will