Two billionaires are arguing recently about their respective rocket technologies. Jeff Bezos launched a reusable rocket, which did not sit well with Elon Musk.
Space.com revealed that Blue Origin, a company owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launched a rocket into space on Nov. 23, 2015 and had it return to Earth for a soft landing. The craft was unmanned and marked a new milestone in how rockets can be reused in the future. USA Today cited that the New Shepard capsule moved up to about 333,000 feet and landed via parachutes on Blue Origin’s ranch in West Texas.
Bezos resorted to Twitter to share a video of the soft landing as well as the good news.
“To be able to do a vertical landing with a fully reusable booster usage is a really big deal. It is the Holy Grail – to get full reuse.” Bezos said at a press conference.
Elon Musk, however, was not quite amused with the new achievement by his fellow billionaire. The owner of SpaceX started by congratulating Bezos and Blue Origin on Twitter. Next, he stated that Bezos’ spacecraft did not actually make history since they only reached suborbital space, a feat that USAF and NASA’s X-15 and Burt Rutan’sSpaceShipOnealready achieved.
Musk also tweeted that they is more difficult to reach orbital than suborbital space.
SpaceX has been attempting to create reusable rockets that can also land vertically. Space.com reported that their Grasshopper prototype had successful landings in the past, but did not get close to reaching space. Their Falcon 9 rocket was close to having a soft landing but descended too hard and crashed.
Bezos was not too pleased with Musk’s tweets, saying that what his company recently achieved is not very different from what SpaceX has been attempting in its previous orbital trials.
Some people were excited at the thought of the two billionaires competing. Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, said that Blue Origin’s test flight was a good marker in the industry, and is expected to push competitors harder. The healthy competition among the entrepreneurs will greatly increase the chances that people may finally be able to casually travel to space. USA Today wrote that the two billionaires share the same vision of creating reusable rockets that will significantly lower the cost of human spaceflight.
More updates and details on Blue Origins and SpaceX are expected in the near future.
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