Thread by @thesheetztweetz

Jeff Bezos is speaking now at the Washington National Cathedral in DC, for an event titled "Our Future in Space."

Livestream:

Bezos: "I've always wanted to turn the Earth into sort of a national park or something, zoned light industry and residential, and I think most heavy industry will be done off in space."

Bezos: "I'm actually spending even more money on the Bezos Earth Fund than I'm spending on space."

Bezos: When @WilliamShatner spoke after stepping out of Blue Origin's New Shepard, it "was one of the most moving experiences of my life."

"We each gave each other the gift of space – he gave it to me when I was in 4th grade and I gave it to him when he was 90 years old."

Bezos: "Where we are right now is the barnstorming era" in the space industry.

"In the next generation ... we need to get to the 787 of space travel ... that will unlock this experience for millions of people."

Bezos: "As impressive as a technical achievement as the Space Shuttle was, it was not an operationally reusable vehicle. It took way too much inspection between flights ... we need to dramatically reduce the cost of space."

"That's what I want Blue Origin to do in my lifetime."

Bezos: "One of the things that I see people consistently get wrong, at least from my point of view: This is the precious planet in our solar system. We need to be able to go to space so that we can preserve this planet."

Bezos: "We will ultimately – because this planet is finite and if you see it from space, you'll know in your heart, not just with your head – end up with a system of rationing, where there will be a limited amount of energy that we are allowed to use per person."

Bezos: "We have so many resources out there. We don't need to strip mine Earth to get those resources and we don't even need to bring most of that back down to Earth."

Bezos: "If you were to terraform Mars or something very dramatic like that – which would be very, very challenging by the way – even if you were to do that, that is at most a doubling of Earth. Then you're going from 10 billion people to 20 billion people."

Bezos: "If on the other hand, if you build these large colonies, each colony may hold a million people ... these colonies are miles long, they're rotated for artificial gravity. They're probably near Earth so that you can return to Earth when you want to."

Bezos: "These colonies will not be like the International Space Station. They will have rivers and forests and wildlife and they're places where you can use a lot of energy and not be damaging this fragile planet."

Bezos: "The government will still have a role to play" in space "but they should be doing the really hard things."

Bezos: "If we're talking about launch into Earth orbit that is something which is now within reach of private enterprise ... and that is something then that should be transitioned to the private sector, because the private sector can be very dynamic and make very rapid progress."

Bezos: "The odds that we are the only intelligent life in the universe seem vanishingly small to me."

"If you ask me have we been visited by those those extra solar intelligence, I very much doubt that."

"But are they out there? Probably."

Bezos says the "hardest" challenge facing Blue Origin "by far is that of operational reusability."

Bezos: "We're going to continue to fly New Shepard, much more frequently – hundreds of times."

Blue Origin is building more New Shepard boosters to achieve that: "Every time we fly, we're going to bring back ambassadors for Earth."

.@IgnatiusPost: "On the space colonies, can you get Amazon Prime?"

Bezos: "Of course, are you kidding? That'll be built in."

@IgnatiusPost That's all from Bezos.