Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have been feuding for years.
Having reached the top of their industries on Earth, they have now set their sights a little further afield.
Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin are neck-and-neck in the race to inhabit space, and it’s being dubbed the 21st century Space Race.
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Musk has dreamed of living on Mars since he was a kid.
Thanks to the strides SpaceX is making, that dream is close to becoming a reality.
But Jeff Bezos is hot on his heels.
While Musk’s aim is to colonize Mars, Bezos wants to use it as an industrial space and for tourism.
The two battled for the right to lease the same rocket launch platform used to launch the Apollo Moon missions.
SpaceX came out on top but not without Blue Origin putting up a fight in court.
Musk’s company had a patent on landing rockets at sea, which Bezos took him to court over.
And this time Bezos came out on top, and the patent was revoked.
Both billionaires made a bid to be the ones to build the lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis program.
Once again, SpaceX won and once again Jeff Bezos protested the decision in court.
He lost the case, but with the contract being worth $2.9 billion it was worth a shot.
For a long time, it appeared that Musk was the clear winner of the Space Race but Bezos’ luck has recently turned around.
Not that someone worth $166.6 billion can be particularly ‘unlucky’.
NASA granted Blue Origin a contract valued at $3.4 billion in May 2023.
This is to go towards developing a competing moon lander.
So it seems that NASA is accidentally fueling the feud.
The two have very different styles when it comes to competing.
Bezos is using a slow and steady approach whereas Musk is notoriously impulsive.
Bezos recently took a subtle but savage dig at Musk’s approach.
“The long-term goal of our small team is to find a way for a person to gradually get used to outer space,” he said.
“We will achieve it slowly, step after step. Be turtles, not hares, and spend resources wisely.”
It’s a fair enough comment, considering how Musk’s hasty actions have not always worked in his favor.
Just a few days ago SpaceX attempted to launch Starship, the most powerful rocket in the world, for the second time.
The launch went well for a few minutes before ending in disaster.
Currently, they’re both at their drawing boards, plotting their next moves.
With a combined net worth of $400 billion, it’s safe to say they can both afford to throw money at the problem.
