A LITTLE HELP FROM NASA. Blue Origin first revealed its ambitions for a Moon colony in March 2017. “It is time for America to return to the Moon — this time to stay,” Bezos told The Washington Post. “A permanently inhabited lunar settlement is a difficult and worthy objective. I sense a lot of people are excited about this.”
At the time, Blue Origin was looking to NASA and the U.S. government for assistance in the endeavor. Since then, it's become one of 10 companies chosen to share $10 million in NASA funding for lunar research. That has apparently helped the company to move up the timeframe for when Blue Moon might be accomplished.