In 2009, a private company salvaged Gus Grissom’s Mercury capsule that accidentally sank in the Atlantic after splashdown in 1961. It was restored and displayed at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center.

Bezos’ planned Apollo recovery is the latest deep-sea adventure by the wealthy. “Avatar’’ director James Cameron over the weekend rode a mini-sub to Earth’s deepest spot in the western Pacific Ocean, seven miles below the surface, which he described as an alien world. Sir Richard Branson plans a similar dive to the deepest part of the Atlantic, the Puerto Rican trench, later this year.

Bezos was 5 years old when he watched the moon landing on television and became hooked on getting to space. NASA “sure inspired me, and with this endeavor, maybe we can inspire a few more youth to invent and explore,’’ he wrote.

It was not immediately clear when Bezos’ team spotted the Apollo engines. Bezos offered few details about the discovery and did not say how he knew the engines were from Apollo 11. The cost of the recovery was not disclosed, but Bezos said it will be done with private funds.

Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener said Bezos was not available for comment.

Bezos’ Blue Origin has been developing a vertical takeoff and landing rocketship that would fly passengers to suborbital space. It has NASA funding to compete to go into orbit as a space taxi now that the space shuttle fleet is retired.

Last year, a test flight went awry when the vehicle became unstable at 45,000 feet and crashed.