(Credit: Tania Shepard / Azzura Photography) Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos shows off a tortoise cufflink during the Pathfinder Awards banquet at Seattle’s Museum of Flight. And during last weekend’s banquet, Bezos showed off a pair of tortoise cufflinks ( which you can buy on Etsy for $48). Why is Blue Origin’s mascot a tortoise? The lesson from the fable of the hare and the tortoise is that “slow and steady wins the race.” Bezos puts a different twist on the tale: “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.” The mascot also may be a commentary on other commercial space ventures that leap into aggressive schedules but don’t end up meeting them, like the hare in the fable. After each successful New Shepard flight, Blue Origin’s team paints a tortoise on the capsule’s hatch. Why is there a winged hourglass on Blue Origin’s coat of arms? Bezos says that’s “a Victorian cemetery symbol which means ‘time is fleeting.’ We don’t have forever.” … You have to do it step by step, but you do want to do it ferociously.” If you do, it’s going to be an illusion that it’s going to make it faster. “If you’re building a flying vehicle, you can’t cut any corners.

What’s Blue Origin’s motto? “Gradatim Ferociter” is Latin for “Step by Step, Ferociously.” Bezos says that’s his approach to spaceflight.

Origin meaning