Bezos’ rocket feat a Musk space invasion
Houston, we have a problem — and some billionaires are bickering about it on Twitter.
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos on Tuesday made the surprise announcement that his spaceexploration firm, Blue Origin, had safely landed a rocket after launching it 62 miles into space.
“The rarest of beasts — a used rocket,” Bezos bragged on Twitter, posting a video of the launch and landing of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket near a facility in west Texas.
The safe landing struck a blow against tech titan Elon Musk, whose startup SpaceX has been considered the commercial leader in private space exploration.
Musk — whose larger Falcon 9 rockets have lately failed at safelanding attempts — took to Twitter Tuesday morning to poohpooh Bezos’ achievement. Musk briefly extended “congrats” to Bezos. He went on, however, to call Blue Origin “the BO team,” and added that it’s “important to clear up the difference between ‘space’ and ‘orbit.’ ”
To get to space, a rocket needs to travel at Mach 3 — three times the speed of sound, Musk said. To get launched into orbit, however, it must travel at Mach 30, he added.
“Jeff maybe unaware SpaceX suborbital [vertical takeoff and landing] flight began 2013,” Musk tweeted sarcastically.
Bezos — who was photographed celebrating at the landing site in a cowboy hat, popping a bottle of champagne — didn’t respond to Musk’s taunts.
“Perfect landing — we made history today,” Bezos said in a promotional video of the landing. “Now, who wants to go to space?”