Has Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos recovered from the seabed rockets that launched Apollo 11's historic 1969 mission to the moon?

Amazon's billionaire boss Jeff Bezos  has recovered what he believes could be the historic rocket motors that took man to the moon.
Bezos funded the expedition to use a robotic submarine to recover the engines from an Apollo mission from three miles below the surface of the sea.
The team found and recovered engines - but have so far been unable to confirm which mission they were used on.
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One of the the corroded F-1 engines from Apollo's Saturn V rocket, which sat more than 4 kilometers below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean

The engines were discovered on the seabed using a robotic submarine - and were today recovered

Jeff Bezos also has his own exploration firm, Bezos Expeditions, which made the discovery. He also runs Blue Origin, a rocket firm

Revealing the find, Bezos hailed the discovery as an incredible discovery.
'What an incredible adventure,' he wrote on the Bezos Expeditions site.
'We are right now onboard the Seabed Worker headed back to Cape Canaveral after finishing three weeks at sea, working almost 3 miles below the surface.
'We found so much.

'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.
'We photographed many beautiful objects in situ 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.'
However, much to the teams disappointment, they have so far been unable to identify which mission the rockets were used on.
It is hoped they could be the F-1 engines on Apollo's Saturn V rocket dropped into the Atlantic minutes after they launched astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on their historic voyage to the moon.

The turbine from one of the F1 rocket motors found by Amazon's billionaire boss

A battered heat exchanger from one of the 1969 missions

A rocket nozzle on the seabed, surrounded by fish

THE APOLLO ROCKETS

More than 40 years later, the Saturn V remains the largest and most powerful engine ever built.

Each of its five 12-foot F-1 engines is capable of generating about 32 million horsepower, burning 6,000 pounds of rocket grade kerosene and liquid oxygen every second.

'Many of the original serial numbers are missing or partially missing, which is going to make mission identification difficult,' admitted Bezos.
'We might see more during restoration.
'The objects themselves are gorgeous.'
The team used a Remotely Operated Vehicles worked at a depth of more than 14,000 feet, tethered to the mothership ship with fiber optics for data and electric cables transmitting power at more than 4,000 volts.
'We on the team were often struck by poetic echoes of the lunar missions.
'The buoyancy of the ROVs looks every bit like microgravity.
'The blackness of the horizon, the gray and colorless ocean floor.
'Only the occasional deep sea fish broke the illusion.'
The team hope to eventually display the motors.

A gas generator and manifold from one of the rocket motors

One of the Saturn V Stage Structures used to hold the components together, pictured on the seabed

'We’re bringing home enough major components to fashion displays of two flown F-1 engines,' Besoz claimed.
'The upcoming restoration will stabilize the hardware and prevent further corrosion.
'We want the hardware to tell its true story, including its 5,000 mile per hour re-entry and subsequent impact with the ocean surface.
'We’re excited to get this hardware on display where just maybe it will inspire something amazing.'
Nasa hailed the find as historic.
'Nearly one year ago, Jeff Bezos shared with us his plans to recover F-1 engines that helped power Apollo astronauts to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s,' said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Groundbreaking: NASA's mighty Saturn V rocket was used to launch the historic Apollo 11

'We share the excitement expressed by Jeff and his team in announcing the recovery of two of the powerful Saturn V first-stage engines from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

'This is a historic find and I congratulate the team for its determination and perseverance in the recovery of these important artifacts of our first efforts to send humans beyond Earth orbit.

'We look forward to the restoration of these engines by the Bezos team and applaud Jeff's desire to make these historic artifacts available for public display.

'Jeff and his colleagues at Blue Origin are helping to usher in a new commercial era of space exploration and we are confident our continued collaboration will soon result in private human access to space, creating jobs and driving America's leadership in innovation and exploration.'
The F-1 engines on Apollo's Saturn V rocket dropped into the Atlantic Ocean minutes after they launched astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on their historic voyage to the moon.

More than 40 years later, the Saturn V remains the largest and most powerful engine ever built, according to space.com.

Each of its five 12-foot F-1 engines is capable of generating about 32 million horsepower, burning 6,000 pounds of rocket fuel every second.

Bezos says on his website that as a five-year-old he watched in amazement as Apollo II launched into space, but a short time ago did he begin to wonder about the rockets.

'A year or so ago, I started to wonder, with the right team of undersea pros, could we find and potentially recover the F-1 engines that started mankind's mission to the moon?' Bezos wrote on his website.

Bezos acknowledges the engines belong to NASA and hopes that one day they will be displayed at the Smithsonian and perhaps at the Museum of Flight in his native Seattle.
His statement concludes: 'NASA is one of the few institutions I know that can inspire 5-year-olds.
'It sure inspired me, and with this endeavor, maybe we can inspire a few more youth to invent and explore.'

The Apollo 11 Saturn V launched Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on their historic voyage to the moon

Exhibit: A Saturn V like the one used in the launch of Apollo 11 draws crowds to the Kennedy Space Center

The Apollo 11 is Bezos' second space-centred project.

Blue Origin, his spaceflight company partially funded by NASA, is developing a commercial spaceship capable of flying people to and from the Earth's orbit.
This mission is just the latest in a long line of exploration attempts launched by deep-pocketed adventurers.
Last week film director James Cameron dived to the furthest depths of the Pacific, while Virgin founder Richard Branson is hoping to start the world's first commercial 'space airline'.

Inspiring: Bezos says the Apollo programme was an inspiration to him when he was a child