LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "I'm excited to report that, using state-of-the-art deep sea sonar, the team has found the Apollo 11 engines lying 14,000 feet below the surface, and we're making plans to attempt to raise one or more of them from the ocean floor," Bezos sais in a note.

"We don't know yet what condition these engines might be in - they hit the ocean at high velocity and have been in salt water for more than 40 years. On the other hand, they're made of tough stuff, so we'll see.

Bezos ended the note with "We'll keep you posted" on the progress of bringing the engines up for the first time since they descended into the ocean in 1969.

Bezos says he intends to raise at least one, maybe more, above sea level.

The first-stage Apollo 11 engines that Bezos claims to have found helped lift Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins toward the moon in 1969, Scientific American reports. Bezos didn't say how the team was able to prove their authenticity.

The efforts to find the engines were privately funded by Bezos, and he says that the plan to bring them up will be privately funded. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen likewise has an interest in space exploration. Allen has his own endeavors, including plans for a commercial spaceship. Film director James Cameron recently successfully emerged from his Mariana Trench dive.

Bezos notes that the F-1 engines remain property of NASA, but he hopes at least one of the engines could be put into the Smithsonian and perhaps an additional one at the Museum of Flight in Amazon's hometown of Seattle.

The Apollo 11 launched on July 16, 1969. Moon dust from the mission was to be auctioned last year, but ultimately it was returned to NASA.

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