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The best pictures of Koru

In 2022, the 125.8-metre sailing yacht Koru made history when she hit the water at Oceanco ’s Alblasserdam facilities. Now successfully delivered, she is the flagship of the Oceanco fleet and the largest Dutch-built yacht in the world. 

BOAT rounds up the best pictures of the three-masted sailing yacht owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos...

Koru unable to dock in Florida

Koru arrived at Port Everglades, Florida in November 2023 following a months-long Mediterranean cruise that included stopovers in Dubrovnik, Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer and Calabria (according to BOATPro ). The sailing yacht was too large to anchor in the nearby marina, which has a maximum capacity of 121.9 metres. She was photographed instead docking next to a 297-metre cruise ship named Rhapsody of the Seas .

Koru's helicopter landing

Last summer, Koru was spotted in the French Riveria alongside her 75-metre support vessel Abeona . Delivered by Damen Yachting two months before the mothership, Abeona is equipped with a helipad and hangar for a D14 value helicopter– which is clearly being put to good use. Accommodation is for up to 45 people onboard Bezos' support vessel, including crew, guests and other specialist staff.

Koru in Portofino

Koru and Abeona also travelled to Portofino in the summer of 2023, with both Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez sighted enjoying lunch and taking photographs while on board. 

Koru's figurehead

Throughout construction, it was difficult to get a glimpse of the details on board Koru ; but once handed over, all of her traditional features could be admired up close. As well as the intricate gold paintwork and scarlet bootstripe, the yacht also features an elaborate figurehead made of polished wood. The woman is wearing a necklace with a symbol in the pendant, which some have speculated could be the Māori symbol meaning "koru".

Koru in front of Palma Cathedral

After delivery, the schooner spent some time enjoying the waters of Mallorca. The Balearic hotspot is a magnet for superyachts during the Mediterranean season, but Koru had the quiet anchorage largely to herself after leaving the Oceanco shipyard. Her classic lines could be appreciated in all of their glory against the backdrop of Palma Cathedral. 

Koru delivered to Mallorca

In April 2023. Koru was delivered and undertook her maiden voyage from the Netherlands to Gibraltar. She then headed onwards to Palma, giving the world a first glimpse of her cascading aft decks, mighty masts and elaborate aft deck pool arrangement. She was flying solo in Mallorca, but was later joined by support vessel Abeona .

Koru in Gibraltar

Following her successful sea trials in Rotterdam, Koru embarked on journey to Palma, Mallorca that involved an overnight anchorage in Gibraltar. The sailing yacht was sighted passing through the Strait of Gibraltar a second time on her cross-continental journey from the Mediterranean to the USA in November 2023.

Koru on sea trials

Koru was spotted departing from Rotterdam in the early morning light of February 13 to begin sea trials. The 125.8-metre Oceanco set sail across the North Sea to put her performance to the test after hitting the water for the first time in August 2022. The traditional three-masted schooner yacht has a midnight blue hull, traditional canoe stern and the unique addition of a chair at the very tip of the bowsprit. Her name represents the idea of life’s perpetual movement and is a Māori word closely related to that of an unfurling leaf.

Koru with her masts stepped

The yacht was seen for the first time in her final form on the dock in the Port of Rotterdam. Her trio of masts was stepped here to avoid having to dismantle any bridges to allow the Oceanco giant yacht to pass under. The maximum height of the bridge is 70 metres; the masts on Koru are thought to measure between 65 and 85 metres. The first images of Koru indicate the yacht will have plenty of features for her owner to enjoy, including an aft deck pool and a large, uncluttered sundeck.

Koru launched

The 125.8-metre yacht was moved from Oceanco’s primary facilities at the crack of dawn to enter the final stages of construction. The hull was transported via Dordrecht and Spijkenisse (Oude Maas), and her masts were transported separately via the slightly shorter Rotterdam Centre (Nieuwe Maas).

Koru moves through the Dutch canals

Before she hit the water, the hull of Koru was loaded onto a transport vessel and she made the journey through the Dutch canals for further construction work. The yacht was captured against the backdrop of the quaint Dutch countryside, revealing her classic-looking lines and long rows of windows.

Koru from a bird's eye view

As she was wheeled out of the shed into the light of day, yacht-spotters were able to get their first proper aerial shot of the yacht, without her masts. 

Koru rolls out of the shed

When Oceanco completed the work on the hull, the yacht was rolled out of the shed to reveal a crisp navy hull and white superstructure. Koru ’s exterior design immediately drew a comparison to Lürssen’s 93-metre sailing yacht Eos , which was designed by US-based Langan Design . This was the world’s first sighting of the already iconic superyacht.

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Jeff Bezos’s $500 Million Megayacht Was Spotted Undergoing Test Trials in the North Sea

The amazon founder's y721 koru from oceanco has finally hit the high seas., louisa ballhaus, louisa ballhaus's most recent stories.

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Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos has a new toy in the works, and it looks like he’s making sure it’ll be ready for summertime travels.

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Bezos ran into some trouble earlier this year when it came out that the Koningshaven Bridge in the Netherlands might have to be dismantled to let Y721 Koru pass through, as the megayacht’s 229-foot masts exceeded the bridge’s 131-foot clearance. City officials briefly agreed to disassemble the bridge but then decided against it in the face of public backlash, according to The New York Times. That negative reaction included a threat from residents to show up and pelt rotten eggs at the $500 million behemoth.

Oceanco, the company that built Y721 Koru, ultimately decided against applying for the permit that would be required for dismantling Koningshaven Bridge, and the boat was instead quietly towed to another shipyard without its mast.

The iconic historic De Hef - Koningshavenbrug Bridge in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam may be dismantled for Jeff Bezos superyacht to pass under, as the mast of the sailboat exceeds the height of the bridge. The two-tower with swing lift bridge is an old level steel railroad bridge connecting the island, Noordereiland in the Maas river in the Southern part of Rotterdam. The bridge was built in 1877 and suffered damage during the 1940 German bombings. Since 2017 after the renovation work, the municipality promised that the bridge would never be dismantled again. The superyacht for the multibillionaire chairman of Amazon is built in the Dutch shipyards of Oceanco. The city council said in a statement that if they will proceed the cost of the deconstruction will be covered by the shipbuilder. Rotterdam, The Netherlands on February 4, 2022 (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Bezos’s completed yacht will be accompanied by a 246-foot-long “shadow yacht” called YS7512, Damen Yacht’s largest-ever support vessel. It will fit 45 people onboard, feature a helicopter hangar and storage for Jet Skis and other water toys and is reportedly called Abeona , according to Boat International .

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Look at this really big boat that may or may not be Jeff Bezos' new superyacht

  • We may have gotten our first look at Jeff Bezos' new superyacht.
  • The 417-foot vessel was photographed rolling out of a shipyard in the Netherlands. 
  • Bezos' yacht will become the world's largest sailing yacht once completed.

Insider Today

We may have just gotten our first glimpse at Jeff Bezos' new superyacht. 

New photos and videos surfaced over the weekend of a 417-foot yacht rolling out of a shipyard in Zwijndrecht, Netherlands. According to yachting publication Boat International , the vessel is known only as Y721 and is being built by Oceanco, a Dutch shipbuilder known for producing some of the world's largest and most luxurious ships.

The massive vessel is still unfinished, but photos published by Boat International and Daily Mail show a ship with a black hull and multiple decks. The project will be completed in 2022 and will become the largest sailing yacht in the world, Boat International reports. 

A spokesperson for Oceanco did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, but the company told Boat International that it "values the privacy and confidentiality of all our clients and prospective clients and therefore does not comment on our involvement or non-involvement in specific projects."

Journalist Brad Stone was the first to report that Bezos had commissioned his own custom yacht. According to Stone's book, "Amazon Unbound," the Amazon founder commissioned a three-mast ship with several decks that's expected to be "one of the finest sailing yachts in existence." 

In addition to the ship, Bezos has reportedly commissioned a second, smaller, "support yacht" that will include its own helipad. Bezos' girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, is a helicopter pilot and Stone reported that Bezos has also taken flying lessons.

The entire project will cost $500 million, according to Auto Evolution . 

A video posted on YouTube by Guy Fleury, a Dutch photographer and videographer, shows an aerial view of what is reportedly Bezos' yacht: 

While massive yachts are often  an accessory of the mega-rich , Bezos, who is the second-richest person in the world with a fortune worth $193 billion , hasn't previously had a boat of his own. A viral photo in 2019 claimed Bezos was the owner of  a $400 million yacht known as the Flying Fox, but Amazon has denied that the ship belongs to Bezos.

Bezos does appear to be a fan of yacht travel, however. Throughout the summer of 2019 , he and Sanchez were spotted aboard multiple yachts belonging to their high-profile friends: first, entertainment mogul David Geffen's Rising Sun, and then fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg's schooner, Eos. And in February, Bezos and Sanchez were spotted aboard another yacht in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico .

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Has the World Finally Had a Glimpse of Jeff Bezos’s $500 Million Mega-Yacht?

By Shivani Vora

Image may contain Jeff Bezos Human Person Clothing Shirt and Apparel

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is appears to be getting closer to welcoming the superyacht he reportedly commissioned in 2018: a fancy toy fitting for the world’s second-richest person, given that it costs a reported $500 million and breaks one world record after another.

Called Y721, this vessel of all vessels is being custom designed by Dutch builder Oceanco and was spotted at a shipyard last week in Zwijndrecht, a town in the western Netherlands. It’s reportedly heading to another Netherlands town, Alblasserdam, for a final fitting. With a length of 417 feet, Y721 is the biggest sailing yacht in the world and the longest vessel to be built in the Netherlands. Features include a black hull, classic shape, three large decks, and three masts.

Image may contain Transportation Vehicle Boat Yacht Vessel and Watercraft

Superyacht Bravo Eugenia , belonging to the U.S. billionaire Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, was built by Oceanco, which is also rumored to be behind Bezos’s new massive vessel.

Y721 is going to totally change the world of yachting with its design and innovation, says Fernando Nicholson, a luxury yacht sales broker with the yachting company Camper & Nicholsons. “It’s a boat with the latest technology and bells and whistles that have never been seen,” he says. “This will be the standard for all superyachts to follow, but in years to come, when its features become more affordable. Right now, only someone with Bezos’s wealth can swing the cost.”

The superyacht is said to be modeled after Oceanco’s famous yacht, the Black Pearl , which the company site says , “is one of the largest and most ecological sailing yachts in the world. She can cross the Atlantic without burning even a liter of fossil fuel.” Y721 will go through sea trails following its fitting-out in Alblasserdam and is expected to be ready sometime next year.

Image may contain Transportation Vehicle Boat and Yacht

The Flying Fox , allegedly owned by Bezos.

However, it’s only one of two new boats for Bezos: He has also commissioned a shadow vessel called YS 7512 from builder Damen Yachts. This support ship measures 246 feet in length and accommodates 45 additional crew and guests. It will also feature a helipad and meeting space and have a vast amount of storage for Bezos’s endless number of water toys, with diving and snorkeling gear, jet and water skis, waterslides, and surfboards among the bunch. Shadow vessels are a growing phenomenon in the superyacht industry and one more extra toy that their owners want to have at the ready, says Nicholson. “You see them more and more now as an add-on to a superyacht purchase,” he says. “They’ve almost become a must.”

There’s no doubt that Bezos will be sailing the high seas in full panache and style come 2022. But really, is there any other way when you have more money than almost anyone else in the world and attract an endless amount of attention too?

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Jeff bezos’ $500m yacht has a 246-foot support ship, lauren sanchez figurehead.

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Much like Amazon, Jeff Bezos’ $500 million superyacht offers every bell and whistle imaginable, from A to Z.

The colossal, triple-masted Koru began its career serving the world’s third richest man this week, cruising the Mediterranean around Mallorca.

The 417-foot schooner first left Rotterdam in the Netherlands for sea trials in February. Dropping anchor in Mallorca put its jaw-dropping size on full display.

It also showed the extent of Bezos’ fleet: Not only did the Koru sail into harbor, so did its support vessel, Abeona, a mega-boat in its own right, the luxurious fast-launches used to move between the two — and aerial support in the form of his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez’s personal helicopter.

Sanchez also seemingly serves the fleet’s mascot, with the Koru’s figurehead, a part of traditional large sailing ships, modeled after her.

The Koru is the world’s tallest sailing yacht. Its three huge 229-foot masts power it to 20 knots. It’s also the biggest billionaire’s yacht which can move under sail-power alone.

What's on board the Koru, Jeff Bezos' ultra-luxe sailing yacht.

The masts are so tall that Dutch officials considered dismantling the 95-year-old Koningshaven Bridge to allow the vessel past the 131-foot span on its journey from the Oceanco shipyard in Alblasserdam through Rotterdam to the North Sea.

That controversial plan was scrapped after local backlash, including residents being urged to toss eggs at Bezos’ “latest toy,”  the New York Times reported . The superyacht, previously known as Y721, was instead towed to a shipyard in Rotterdam, downstream of the bridge, without its masts.

Jeff Bezos at helm

Bezos, 59, and the bikini-clad Sanchez, 53, appeared ready for the summer as the pair soaked up the sun aboard Koru, a Māori word for loop or coil that symbolizes new beginnings — possibly a coy reference to their relationship.

Sanchez started secretly dating the Blue Origin founder in the summer of 2018. Bezos then announced in January 2019 he and his wife Mackenzie were divorcing after 25 years , while Sanchez finalized her split from husband Patrick Whitesell later that year.

Sanchez plays a critical role in the Bezos fleet: As a helicopter pilot, she was seen landing on the Abeona. She was also at Bezos’ side when he took the wheel of the Koru.

Abeona

Koru was first seen under construction in 2021 at Oceano’s yard. The company is owned by a fellow billionaire, Oman’s Mohammed Al Barwani.

As many as 18 guests can enjoy the yacht’s three outdoor decks, including one with two pools. The vessel, which has a crew of up to 36, also boasts a cinema, meeting spaces and lounges,  Luxuo reported .

Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez

Every detail is designed for luxury, even down to the masts’ technology.

Bezos opted for high-tech “in-boom furlers,” which store the vast canvases at the bottom of the mast, above the deck. Each weighs nearly 2,000 pounds, but they allow his deck to be kept clear of ropes.

Clearing ropes out of the way maximizes entertaining space, and allows for a hot tub forward of the mainmast.

The yacht is also built for speed. Its three masts provide “one of the largest sail areas ever seen in yachting,”  according to SuperYacht Times .

jeff bezos yacht new

The Koru’s original designer, and the identity of its captain, remain secret. Boat International noted : “With the elegant curve of the bow and a bowsprit, the lines are certainly classic, but we still have no idea which designer drew them.”

The Cayman Islands-flagged vessel also has engine power like most sailing yachts.

And while other billionaires measure yachts by size, Bezos’ is only the 24th largest.

Abeona

However, since Koru’s masts rule out a helicopter deck, the billionaire commissioned a support vessel, Abeona, named for the Roman goddess of outward journeys.

In addition to a helipad, the 246-foot Abeona features an extra two staterooms for four guests and as many as 45 crew and support staff.

It’s the largest custom-built support vessel ever manufactured by Damen Yachting. On board in Mallorca were at least four jetskis, two fast launches, and an additional dinghy. Its heavy winch is capable of lifting a small submarine, although Bezos is not believed to have one thus far.

Koru's pool

The “classic exterior lines” of Koru, are reminiscent of another billionaire’s boat: Eos, a 305-foot sailing yacht owned by Barry Diller, 81, who may have inspired Bezos after hosting him on the vessel.

Favored by megastars like Katy Perry and Bradley Cooper — who were Diller’s guests during 2019’s Google Camp in Sicily — the German-built Eos can accommodate up to 16 guests and 21 crew.

It was the largest private sailing yacht in the world when it was completed in 2006. Diller, chairman of IAC and Expedia, who is worth $3.9 billion, bought it three years later. Intriguingly, its figurehead is modeled on Diller’s wife Diane von Fürstenberg, the fashion designer.

But the $200 million, 305-foot schooner is now dwarfed by Bezos’ boat.

Koru under sail

As Koru sailed in the Balearic Sea this week off the coast of Spain, Bezos’ boat symbolically surges past several other tech billionaires’ vessels – including Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s $80 million, 240-foot Dragonfly, and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison’s, $160 million, 288-foot Musashi.

It will cost Bezos, 59, an estimated $25 million per year to operate Koru, but the world’s third-richest man isn’t likely to need a loan with his $140.6 billion fortune,  according to Forbes .

Eos

Bezos’ use of sailpower sets him apart from most billionaires, but others are seeking a hi-tech zero-carbon power source: a Japanese billionaire has reportedly commissioned the world’s first hydrogen-powered superyacht.

Germany’s Lürssen Yachts announced in March that they had a hydrogen-powered superyacht in advanced construction.

It declined to identify the future owner of the unnamed superyacht, but specialist publication FuelCellsWorks reported Japanese billionaire tech Yusaku Maezawa, worth an estimated $1.7 billion, commissioned the innovative effort.

Bezos: How his yacht compares to other tech billionaires.

Dubbed Project Cosmos, the 374-foot superyacht is designed by Apple’s legendary Marc Newson and was first unveiled in early March at Lürssen’s facility in Rendsburg, Germany.

Once completed as soon as next year, the vessel is expected to utilize emission-free fuel cell technology to generate power lasting up to 15 days while anchored or to travel as far as 1,000 miles at slow speeds.

Three other major shipyards, including in Italy and the Netherlands, are likely to launch their own hydrogen started outfitting newly constructed vessels with hydrogen fuel cells as of March 2022, with the first models reportedly expected in 2024.

Other megayachts expected to soon join Bezos’ Koru in the water include two Lürssen models, the 475-foot Luminance and the 400-foot Jag, and Feadship 821, a 389-foot offering from the Netherlands manufacturer.

Azzam, world's longest superyacht

But even those won’t best the biggest megayacht in the world, the 593-foot Azzam, which launched in 2013 after being commissioned by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates who died last year.

Azzam, which means determination in Arabic, reportedly cost more than $600 million and is nearly 60 feet longer than the world’s second-largest yacht, the 533-foot Eclipse, owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

Those monster vessels are expected to be surpassed next year by REV, a 600-foot yacht under construction in Norway which will have space for 36 guests and 54 crewmembers, according to Boat International .

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What's on board the Koru, Jeff Bezos' ultra-luxe sailing yacht.

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Jeff Bezos could save $600m in taxes after moving to Florida

Windfall stems from $2bn stock sale as Bezos and Lauren Sanchez pick state that doesn’t levy taxes on income or capital gains

The multibillionaire Jeff Bezos and his fiancee, Lauren Sanchez, could save $600m in taxes simply because they moved to Florida.

The accounting windfall stems from a $2bn sale of Amazon stock.

Bezos, 59, who is in a three-way race with Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Tesla’s Elon Musk for the title of wealthiest American, announced in November he was leaving Seattle after 30 years – ostensibly, he said in an Instagram post , to be nearer his parents and his Blue Origin rocket launches at Cape Canaveral.

“I’ve lived in Seattle longer than I’ve lived anywhere else and have so many amazing memories here. As exciting as the move is, it’s an emotional decision for me. Seattle, you will always have a piece of my heart,” he wrote.

But on Tuesday the financial news network CNBC offered another clue to his move: two years ago, Washington introduced a new 7% capital gains tax on sales of stocks or bonds of more than $250,000.

Florida, however, does not levy taxes on income or capital gains.

Bezos, the outlet reported, has been selling billions of dollars of Amazon stock since 1998 to fund his philanthropic operations, Blue Origin, and some of his splashy acquisitions, including new homes on Miami’s “billionaire bunker” island Indian Creek and a $500m 417ft mega-yacht, the Koru.

Last year, after the new tax, Bezos stopped selling Amazon stock – that is until he notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission that he plans to unload 50m shares before 31 January 2025 that at current values would amount to $8.7bn.

On the first $2bn tranche last week, Bezos saved $140m in taxes he would have paid to Washington state, and on the entire sale over the next two years the figure would be about $610m or more, if Amazon stock continues to rise. The savings will nicely cover the expense of the Kuro.

The cost of moving to Miami has been onerous in own right for the couple, who have so far splashed out $147m on two Indian Creek mansions, near the residences of the quarterback Tom Brady, Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, and the investor Carl Icahn.

Miami real estate brokers say Bezos is likely to tear down the two homes and build a new one. He is also said to be looking at other properties on the island, which is its own municipality and has its own mayor.

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The architect Kobi Karp, who has worked in Miami “since the Miami Vice and Scarface days”, told Bloomberg that the island’s biggest draw is privacy. Paul George, the resident historian at the HistoryMiami Museum told outlet that the island is “only the very wealthy, the billionaires”.

Karp added: “Hundreds of millions aren’t gonna cut it any more.”

But Bezos’s personal real estate projects may not fully to account for what it takes to relocate a multibillionaire, his fiancee and their support staff across a continent. Soon after Bezos announced the couple’s move to Miami, Amazon announced it was looking for 50,000 sq feet of office space in nearby Brickell.

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Jeff Bezos will save over $600 million in taxes by moving to Miami

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  • Last year, Bezos announced on Instagram that he was leaving Seattle after nearly 30 years to move to Miami.
  • In 2022 Washington state imposed a new, 7% capital gains tax on sales of stocks or bonds of more than $250,000.
  • Bezos plans to unload 50 million shares of Amazon before Jan. 31, 2025. Posting those sales in Florida will save him at least $610 million.

Jeff Bezos' $2 billion stock sale last week came with an added perk: no state taxes.

Last year, Bezos announced on Instagram that he was leaving Seattle after nearly 30 years to move to Miami. He said the move was to be closer to his parents and his rocket launches at Blue Origin. The timing also suggested another reason: taxes.

In 2022 Washington state imposed a new, 7% capital gains tax on sales of stocks or bonds of more than $250,000. Washington state doesn't have a personal income tax, so the new levy marked the first time Bezos would face state taxes on his stock sales.

Starting in 1998 Bezos sold billions of dollars worth of Amazon shares almost every year for more than two decades to fund his philanthropy, his space company Blue Origin, and more recently his $500 million mega yacht and a growing collection of mansions purchased with his fiancé Lauren Sanchez.

In 2022, when the tax took effect, Bezos stopped selling. He didn't sell any Amazon stock in 2022 or 2023, gifting only $200 million of shares at the end of last year.

After his move to Miami, Bezos made up for lost time. Last week, a filing with the SEC revealed that Bezos launched a pre-scheduled stock-selling plan to unload 50 million shares before Jan. 31, 2025. At today's price, that would total more than $8.7 billion.

Florida has no state income tax or a tax on capital gains. So on the $2 billion sale last week, he saved $140 million that he would have paid to Washington state. On the entire sale of 50 million shares over the next year, he will save at least $610 million. And that's assuming Amazon shares remain flat. If they continue to rise, the value of his shares — and his tax savings — will be even higher.

Put another way, he's more than paid for his 417-foot yacht, Koru, with just his Florida tax savings.

For his new digs, Bezos purchased two mansions in Indian Creek for $147 million and is reportedly looking at three other properties on the island, which also counts Tom Brady and Carl Icahn as residents. Miami brokers say Bezos is likely to tear down the homes and build a new one, with the total costs of the new estate likely topping $200 million.

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Geekwire

‘Let’s go!’ Jeff Bezos gets revved up when Blue Origin raises up its New Glenn rocket

F or the first time, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture lifted up an orbital-class New Glenn rocket on its Florida launch pad — with the billionaire boss keeping watch.

“Just incredible to see New Glenn on the pad at LC-36,” Bezos wrote today in an Instagram post that referred to Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. “Big year ahead. Let’s go!”

Blue Origin’s CEO, Dave Limp, agreed that the sight was incredible.

“Its size alone — more than 30 stories high and a 7-meter diameter fairing with 487 cubic meters of capacity — is humbling,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post .

The rocket-raising party marked the climax of New Glenn’s first-ever rollout. “Pending weather, the vehicle will remain on the pad for at least a week for a series of tanking tests, including flowing cryogenic fluids for the first time,” Limp said.

But this pathfinder rocket isn’t destined for liftoff. The coming round of tests will be conducted without New Glenn’s BE-4 rocket engines, which are powered by liquefied natural gas and have been going through tests in Huntsville, Ala. , and at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in Texas. Eventually, the rocket will be rolled off the pad — and then an engine-equipped version, incorporating components from the test vehicle’s first stage, will be prepared for launch.

Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin has been launching its suborbital New Shepard rocket ship from Launch Site One for nine years. That rocket is named after NASA astronaut Alan Shepard, who took a milestone suborbital space mission in 1961 .

New Glenn — whose name pays tribute to John Glenn, the first U.S. astronaut to go into orbit — is in a different class entirely. The heavy-lift rocket’s reusable first-stage booster is meant to last for at least 25 missions. It’s designed to land itself on a sea-based platform after sending New Glenn’s expendable second stage spaceward. The fairing, or nose cone, is roomy enough to hold three school buses.

New Glenn’s development timeline has faced a series of delays over the years. When Blue Origin revealed the rocket’s design in 2016 , Bezos said he expected the first flight to take place “before the end of this decade” — that is, before 2020 — but it’s taken longer than planned to get the BE-4 engines and Blue Origin’s facilities in Florida ready for prime time.

The slower-than-expected pace has drawn unfavorable comparisons to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which was founded two years after Blue Origin but has grown to become the world’s dominant space launch company.

Bezos said he chose Limp, who previously served as Amazon’s devices chief, to become Blue Origin’s CEO because of his ability to get results quickly . “Dave has an outstanding sense of urgency, brings energy to everything, and helps teams move very fast,” Bezos said in last September’s announcement about Limp’s selection.

In today’s LinkedIn post, Limp insisted that this is the year for New Glenn’s debut.

“Manufacturing continues to make progress with multiple boosters, fairings and second stages in our factory. What a great set of milestones delivered by the team,” he wrote. “We’re looking forward to bringing this heavy-lift capacity to our customers later this year.”

Blue Origin says it has a full customer manifest, with launches penciled in for Telesat , Eutelsat and other telecom providers. The two most prominent customers are NASA, which is counting on New Glenn for the launch of its twin ESCAPADE Mars probes this year; and Amazon, the other tech venture founded by Bezos, which has reserved at least 12 New Glenn launches for its Project Kuiper broadband internet satellites .

Also today, Ars Technica reported that Blue Origin has emerged as the sole finalist to purchase United Launch Alliance, a joint space venture currently co-owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The report attributed that information to two unnamed sources, and quoted those sources as saying they expected the sale to be announced within a month or two.

Speculation about the potential sale of ULA has been circulating for months, with the price rumored to be in the range of $2 billion to $3 billion. ULA’s next-generation Vulcan rocket, which made its debut last month , uses Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines on its first stage.

Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp and founder Jeff Bezos get a look at New Glenn. (Blue Origin via LinkedIn)

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Jeff bezos’ new glenn rocket finally makes an appearance on the launch pad, blue origin plans a tanking test at cape canaveral, then a hot fire on the launch pad..

Stephen Clark - Feb 22, 2024 11:59 pm UTC

Dave Limp, Blue Origin's new CEO, and founder Jeff Bezos observe the New Glenn rocket on its launch pad Wednesday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

Anyone who has tracked the development of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket has been waiting for signs of progress from the usually secretive space company. On Wednesday, engineers rolled a full-scale New Glenn rocket, partially made up of flight hardware, to a launch pad in Florida for ground testing.

The first New Glenn launch is almost certainly at least six months away, and it may not even happen this year. In the last few years, observers inside and outside the space industry have become accustomed to the nearly annual ritual of another New Glenn launch delay. New Glenn's inaugural flight has been delayed from 2020 until 2021, then 2022, and for now, is slated for later this year.

But it feels different now. Blue Origin is obviously moving closer to finally launching a rocket into orbit.

Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin's founder, was at Cape Canaveral to see his giant new rocket on the launch pad for the first time. "Just incredible to see New Glenn on the pad at LC-36," Bezos wrote on Instagram . "Big year ahead. Let’s go!"

Starting late last year , Blue Origin officials doubled down on the company's plans to launch the first New Glenn test flight by the end of 2024. This messaging coincided with the arrival of Dave Limp as Blue Origin's chief executive, replacing Bob Smith, whose seven-year tenure included the first human suborbital flights on the company's New Shepard rocket. Smith's time as CEO was also marked by repeated delays on the New Glenn rocket.

Limp is pushing Blue Origin to move faster, and it seems the company's employees got the memo. In December, the company rolled elements of the New Glenn rocket from its factory just outside the gates of NASA's Kennedy Space Center to a final assembly hangar located about nine miles away at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Inside that building, technicians connected the first stage booster, which is flight hardware, with an upper stage Blue Origin has set aside for ground testing. The final piece of the rocket to be added was a 23-foot-diameter (7-meter) payload fairing, the uppermost section of New Glenn designed to protect spacecraft during the initial phase of launch.

Last week, Blue Origin lifted a structure simulating the rocket's empty mass vertical using the transporter-erector arm at Launch Complex 36 (LC-36), a former Atlas launch pad Blue Origin took over in 2015. This was a final validation of the lifting arm at LC-36 before Blue Origin put a real, or mostly real, rocket on the pad.

The first full-scale New Glenn rocket rolls out at Launch Complex 36.

On Wednesday, ground crews rolled a fully assembled New Glenn rocket out of the hangar at LC-36 and up the ramp to the launch mount. Then, the hydraulic lifting arm raised the two-stage launcher vertically. At more than 320 feet (98 meters) tall, New Glenn is one of the largest rockets ever seen on Florida's Space Coast, roughly the same height as NASA's Space Launch System rocket and nearly as tall as the Saturn V used in the Apollo program.

"The upending is one in a series of major manufacturing and integrated test milestones in preparation for New Glenn’s first launch later this year," Blue Origin officials wrote in an update on Wednesday. "The test campaign enables our teams to practice, validate, and increase proficiency in vehicle integration, transport, ground support, and launch operations."

New Glenn can haul nearly 100,000 pounds (45 metric tons) of payload into low-Earth orbit. For low-altitude orbits, this is a weight class above the uppermost capability of United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket or SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket but below SpaceX's Falcon Heavy. Blue Origin also plans to use the New Glenn rocket to launch lunar landers to the Moon for NASA's Artemis program.

New Glenn's first-stage booster is reusable and is designed to land on an offshore barge in the Atlantic Ocean, which will bring it back to the coast, similar to the way SpaceX recovers its Falcon 9 booster.

"The fairing is large enough to hold three school buses," Blue Origin said. "Its reusable first stage aims for a minimum of 25 missions and will land on a sea-based platform located roughly 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) downrange."

Blue Origin is now 24 years old and employs around 11,000 people at locations around the country, with major locations in Washington, Texas, Florida, and Alabama. While the company has not yet launched anything into orbit, Blue Origin is working on a wide range of projects aside from rockets, including cargo and human-rated lunar landers for NASA and a space tug that could move payloads into different orbits for the US military. New Glenn is crucial for all of these plans.

Blue Origin's latest progress with New Glenn comes as Bezos's space company appears to be on the verge of buying United Launch Alliance from Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

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San Diego/Tijuana wins World Design Capital, defeating Moscow

San Diego and Tijuana have been selected as a World Design Captial.

The bi-national proposal won over judges from the World Design Organization.

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San Diego and Tijuana have won their joint bid to become a World Design Capital .

The two cities were selected together as the 2024 city, defeating the other finalist Moscow, the Montreal-based World Design Organization announced Wednesday morning.

The distinction means a global spotlight with a year of events to promote the region, including a street festival, a one-day celebration highlighting the winner’s designs and a design conference that should bring people from around the globe. In addition to putting the region on the world stage, it is also expected to be a boost to the tourism industry hit hard by the pandemic.

Previous design capitals have been Seoul, Helsinki, Cape Town, Taipei and Mexico City. This bid was unique in that a binational region decided to apply together and marks the first time a binational region has won.

“The San Diego-Tijuana bid showcases the power of design to unite and connect us, despite geographical differences,” wrote World Design Capital President Srini Srinivasan. “Their culture of design innovation and unique urban landscape were well-represented throughout their bid, and the region is poised to develop a WDC programme that will serve as a model for other border cities around the world.”

San Diego and Tijuana rolled out the red carpet in October for the design organization’s managing director, Bertrand Derome. In San Diego he visited the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, UC San Diego’s Design and Innovation building, Balboa Park and Chicano Park. In Tijuana, he went to the Bujazán Cinema, Playas de Tijuana’s Friendship Park, the circular Tijuana Cultural Center and was treated to local cuisine at the Tijuana Culinary Art School.

A keystone of the entire tour was the Cross Border Xpress, or CBX, facility that allows travelers out of Tijuana’s airport to easily cross to the United States and vice versa.

The competition goes beyond just buildings and also looks at how cities use design to create change to improve the quality of life for its citizens. He said that can be in an environmental, cultural, social or economic way.

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said he hoped the designation would go a long way in changing the perception of the border region among the media and faraway politicians that paint it in a bad light.

“The border is often portrayed as a negative,” he said from Glasgow, where he is attending a climate change conference. “For those of us that live here in the border region, we see it for what it is: An asset.”

Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero said in a statement that the cities should be known for more than just being the busiest border crossing in the Western Hemisphere.

“Our designation as a World Design Capital is an opportunity for us to highlight to the world the unique interconnectedness of our region,” she wrote, “and tell the story of 7 million people who live, work, and partner together in exceptional ways.”

The local effort was spearheaded by the San Diego-based Design Forward Alliance, which said the cost to cover fees is being covered by corporate donations and a GoFundMe campaign that is still raising money. There are several groups that partnered with the alliance on the effort, including the Burnham Center for Community Advancement and UC San Diego Design Lab.

“This is about showing the world that we are more than just a border or two border cities,” Michèle Morris, president of the alliance, said in a news release. “We are one regional home to 7 million people who are more alike than they are different and who partner in many incredible and groundbreaking ways.”

The cost of the bid is a bit difficult to calculate because it is mainly built upon thousands of volunteer hours and donated space. But, the fees to apply to the World Design Organization include a $10,000 Canadian dollar application ($7,943 in U.S. dollars) and another $25,000 Canadian dollars ($19,859 USD) for cities that make the final short list. The winner must pay a $600,000 Canadian dollar ($476,631 USD) hosting fee over the next three years.

Gloria said San Diego would not be contributing direct funds to the bid (same with Tijuana) but that it will be handled by private donations and organizers. However, he said the city will be likely offering a lot of in-kind services, such as the use of space, and possibly speeding up projects around the region to be ready for 2024.

Winning the bid means a lot of work for organizers, as well as fundraising. Photos from the 2010 Design Capital year show a massive circular installation in the heart of Seoul .

The World Design Organization didn’t say why it chose San Diego/Tijuana over Moscow. In its news release, the organization said it would use the bid to serve as a model for other border cities, hinting that the cross-border approach was a good one.

Moscow highlighted new skyscrapers, rich history, younger designers, its new Moscow City Business Center (which took nearly 30 years to come to fruition), and its recently completed Floating Bridge, a structure near Red Square that hangs over the Moskva River like a boomerang.

Gloria said he felt San Diego/Tijuana did a good job showing what the design organization was looking for when speculating why it won over Moscow.

“It’s not about flash, it’s about design and design-based solutions to a community’s challenges,” he said.

Estimates of the financial benefit of being selected a design capital range in the millions of dollars. Another benefit is changing how people feel about their own city. In a report after Taipei, Taiwan won the honor in 2016, organizers said 72 percent of residents were proud that the city was made a design capital.

In its proposal, San Diego/Tijuana said the theme was HOME (Human-Centered, Open, Multidisciplinary/Multicultural, Experimental). A full list of all partners and supporters is available on the bid’s website .

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Jeff Bezos Big Rocket Moves Into View and Closer to Launch

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket rolled to the launchpad for a series of tests in preparation for its flight debut later this year.

An enormous white rocket on a carrier makes its way very slowly to the launch stand.

By Kenneth Chang

Reporting from the sites of Blue Origin’s operations in Florida, with a rare look inside the company’s rocket factory.

There’s an easy knock against the space dreams of Jeff Bezos and his rocket company, Blue Origin: In its 24th year of existence, the company has yet to launch a single thing to orbit.

Blue Origin’s accomplishments to date are modest — a small vehicle known as New Shepard that takes space tourists and experiments on brief suborbital jaunts. By contrast, SpaceX, the rocket company started by the other high-profile space billionaire, Elon Musk, today dominates the launch market.

On Wednesday, Blue Origin hopes to change the narrative, holding a coming-out party of sorts for its new big rocket.

In the morning, at Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, the doors to a giant garage opened. The rocket, as tall as a 32-story building, lay horizontally on the trusses of a mobile launch platform.

The contraption was cradled on a transport mechanism that resembles several long mechanical centipedes, but with wheels, 288 in all, instead of feet. It began rolling slowly out and up a concrete incline, a quarter-mile trip toward the launchpad.

The rocket will undergo at least a week of tests before returning to the garage.

“I’m very confident there’s going to be a launch this year,” Dave Limp, the chief executive of Blue Origin, said in an interview. “We’re going to show a lot of progress this year. I think people are going to see how fast we can move.”

Named New Glenn in honor of John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, the powerful rocket will be capable of lugging about 100,000 pounds into low-Earth orbit. That is a greater lifting capacity than SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets but not as much as the Falcon Heavy.

New Glenn is one of several rockets expected to debut this year, adding to competition for SpaceX. In January, the Vulcan rocket, built by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, made a successful maiden flight. It used two of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines, proving their design met expectations. The first stage of New Glenn will use seven BE-4s.

Later this year, Ariane 6, a rocket designed by the European Space Agency, is expected to make its first flight, and SpaceX continues work on its gargantuan Starship rocket that is to take NASA astronauts to the surface of the moon.

Carissa Christensen, the chief executive of BryceTech, a space consulting company in Alexandria, Va., said the wealth of Mr. Bezos, founder of Amazon, gave Blue Origin credibility from the start.

”You’ve heard that saying,” she said. “Rockets run on money. And so, the depth of resources available to that company, the commitment of its founder, I think, makes it unique.”

But having the luxury of billions of dollars perhaps meant that Blue Origin did not always move with much urgency, she said. “Maybe that shifts you to a bit of a perfectionist model,” Ms. Christensen said.

Preparing for New Glenn’s maiden launch

The rocket now on the Blue Origin launchpad is not quite what will be launched later this year.

The tanks of the booster are the ones destined for space, but the rest of the booster may or may not be used for launch. Also, the BE-4 engines have not been installed yet. The second stage and the nose cone are just test versions.

Over the coming days, Blue Origin will practice filling the propellant tanks of the rocket.

A few miles away, a rocket factory is busy churning out pieces of future New Glenn rockets.

In 2015, Mr. Bezos announced plans for Blue Origin to build and launch rockets in Florida, with the first launch occurring by 2020. Within a couple of years, a giant Blue Origin factory rose on empty land not far outside of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, but what was going on inside remained a mystery to outsiders.

Jarrett Jones, the senior vice president overseeing the development of New Glenn, said that the factory was empty when he joined Blue Origin in 2019.

“We’ve gone from basically just a building with tape on the floor to everything you see today,” he said during a tour of the factory at the end of January.

The capacious factory, spanning 650,000 square feet, is full but not jammed with partially built rockets. Pieces of the rocket enter one side of the factory and are assembled at stations extending down the factory floor, which is four football fields in length.

An upper section of a New Glenn booster towered in the middle of the factory, with massive fins at the top. “They’re about 15 feet long, about eight feet deep,” said Jordan Charles, the vice president who is responsible for the booster. “They do very little going up. They do a lot coming down. They help guide the vehicle.”

New Glenn’s boosters will land on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean and then launch again, for at least 25 flights. That is similar to how SpaceX lands and reuses its Falcon 9 boosters.

Unlike SpaceX, which took an incremental fail-until-you-succeed approach, Blue Origin hopes that everything will work on the first try and that its engineers already know enough from landing the much smaller boosters of New Shepard.

“The software, the guidance, it’s all very similar thing to what we’ve done on New Shepard and it gives us a lot of confidence,” Mr. Charles said.

Walking through a door, one enters another cavernous space, this one for the manufacture of the rocket’s nose cones, or fairings, which protect payloads during the ascent through the atmosphere. New Glenn, at 23 feet in diameter, is wider than most other rockets, and its fairing is twice as voluminous as the ones used by skinnier competitors, Blue Origin says.

After the completion of the launchpad tests, the rocket will be rolled back to the garage and the stages taken apart.

From there, Blue Origin will then begin putting together the final version of New Glenn for its first launch, installing the engines and test firing them.

No launch date has been announced. Blue Origin has not confirmed the first payload, but it might be two small identical NASA spacecraft for the mission of Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, or EscaPADE, which will study the magnetic fields around Mars.

Mr. Jones said he expected two launches of New Glenn this year and hopes to speed up launches next year, to as many as one a month. Even coming close to that pace would be impressive.

SpaceX took years to reach its breakneck launch rate, which now averages about twice a week. The first Falcon 9 rocket lifted off in 2010. It was not until 2017 that the number of Falcon 9 launches reached double digits.

“We’ll have the equipment, tooling capability, launch system to be able to immediately go to 12 launches a year,” Mr. Jones said. Ultimately, the goal is 24 a year or more, he said.

From Kindles to space stations

Mr. Limp is not quite as certain that a second New Glenn launch will get off the ground this year. “It’s hard to look around that corner because you are going to learn so much from the first launch,” he said. “I would just say, I’ll be super happy if we get one launch this year, for sure.”

He became chief executive at Blue Origin in December, and at first glance seemed to be an odd choice to run a rocket company. He had worked at Amazon, overseeing the consumer electronics division that includes the Echo smart speakers, Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets.

As part of that job, he did have some space experience leading Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which is planning to launch a constellation of internet satellites to rival SpaceX’s Starlink service.

About a year ago, he decided, “I still wanted to do something new, but I just didn’t want to be in the consumer electronics field.” Mr. Bezos suggested that maybe he could replace Bob Smith, who had decided to retire as head of Blue Origin.

“My initial reaction was, well, I don’t know a lot about rockets, maybe not,” Mr. Limp recalled.

But over a couple of months, Mr. Bezos convinced him “that he didn’t think Blue needed another rocket scientist,” Mr. Limp said. “We’ve got buildings full of them. But what it needed was some leadership around the scale that Blue had become.”

He said his experience in consumer electronics — taking conceptual ideas, making prototypes, turning them into finished products and then manufacturing millions of them — could help. Blue Origin is not going to build millions of rockets, but it will have to build more of them more quickly.

Mr. Limp also wants Blue Origin to make decisions more quickly. “Maybe what we were doing was seeking perfection in a lot of things,” he said.

Taking a little more risk “makes you move much, much faster,” he said.

Mr. Limp sees a future with many new business opportunities off Earth. ”My view is that the demand for orbital launch vehicles will be much higher than people are predicting five years out,” he said. “It’s not going to be like, Blue Origin wins, SpaceX loses, or vice versa. It’s going to be multiple winners.”

Blue Origin’s other projects include a lunar lander for NASA and the Orbital Reef space station . “They’re building foundational capabilities for the longer-term vision,” he said. “So there is a method to what we’re doing.”

Kenneth Chang has been at The Times since 2000, writing about physics, geology, chemistry, and the planets. Before becoming a science writer, he was a graduate student whose research involved the control of chaos. More about Kenneth Chang

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IMAGES

  1. Jeff Bezos' New Super Yacht Worth $500 Million

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  2. Jeff Bezos $500 Million Yacht Koru Makes Maiden Voyage

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  3. Mr. Bezos is at It Again

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  4. This Is Jeff Bezos' New Yacht: Huge, Luxurious And Costs 500 Million

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  5. Bezos Yachts / Jeff Bezos Superyachts Cost $ 500 Million In The Luxury

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  6. Jeff Bezos' new $500M superyacht sets sail after 5-year construction

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COMMENTS

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    Koru is a luxury custom superyacht owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. The vessel was built in the Netherlands by Oceanco starting in 2021, and delivered in April 2023. [3] [4] [5] It is a three-masted sailing yacht 127 meters (417 ft) long and reported to have cost $500 million or more.

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