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The rivalry between billionaires and space may have resumed.
SpaceX's chief, Elon Musk, made a mischievous and brutal move on Twitter yesterday (9 May) to Jeff Bezos, after the richest man in the world. unveiled the lunar lander Blue Moon developed by its space flight company, Blue Origin.
"Oh, stop teasing, Jeff," Musk wrote in an article in connection with an article about the New York Times Blue Moon, which Bezos said will carry cargo and people at the same time. on the lunar surface, with a first planned flight from here 2024..
The Times' story featured a photo of a Blue Moon mockup that Bezos had exhibited at an event in Washington, DC yesterday. "Blue Moon" is engraved on the liquid hydrogen spherical propellant tank of the model. But Musc took the initiative to modify this text (very carefully), erasing "Moon" and writing "Balls" in his place.
Related: Blue Origin: calm shots for spaceships
(Click on tweet below to enlarge)
Oh stop teasing, Jeff, pic.twitter.com/wuWPENcSE1May 10, 2019
"The competition is good, results for a better result for everyone," Musk wrote in another tweet, responding to a Twitter fan who asked him to comment on Blue Moon. "But putting the word" Blue "on a ball is a questionable mark," he added later in the thread.
SpaceX has its own lunar ambitions. The Musk company is developing a huge rocket called Super Heavy and a spaceship called Starship to transport people to and from the Moon, Mars and other destinations of the solar system. A test version of Starship called Starhopper has already performed some short captivated flights in SpaceX facilities in South Texas.
Musk and Bezos have beards exchanged before.
SpaceX and Blue Origin both develop reusable rockets and spacecraft, designed to reduce the cost of spaceflight and open up the sky for exploration. Blue Origin first managed to land one of its rockets, marking a turning point in November 2015 during the test flight of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle.
Musk congratulated Bezos via Twitter shortly after, but also pointed out that it is much harder to land on an orbital rocket such as the two-story SpaceX Falcon 9. Bezos responded by pointing out at a press conference that the first leg of the Falcon 9 did not reach orbit.
SpaceX landed for the first time with a Falcon 9 booster in December 2015, taking a first step to Earth at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. Bezos congratulated SpaceX with a tweet that seemed to have a bit of a dirty side: "Congratulations @SpaceX for landing in Falcon's suborbital reinforcement phase, welcome to the club!"
This does not mean that there is really coolness between the two billionaires. For example, Bezos tweeted his best wishes to Musk in February 2018, shortly before the very first test flight of SpaceX's massive Falcon Heavy rocket. (Musk replied with a simple "thank you" and emoji kissing kisses.)
Both entrepreneurs have similar and very ambitious goals. Musk repeatedly reiterated that he had founded SpaceX primarily to help colonize Mars, thus making humanity a multiplanarian species. And Bezos pointed out that the ultimate goal of Blue Origin is to help make live and work millions of people in the space.
Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there"(Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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