Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been testing and launching rockets for years, and now, in addition to congratulating Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for a successful launch, he has chosen to criticize him. This week the space exploration company Bezos founded successfully brought a rocket ship safely back to Earth in reusable condition. The Amazon CEO also sent out his first tweet this week, but Musk had plenty of tweets to say about Bezos’ single tweet.
Jeff Bezos celebrates rocket success
Bezos has only tweeted once so far, and it’s about Blue Origin’s rocket landing. Bezos owns Blue Origin
The rarest of beasts – a used rocket. Controlled landing not easy, but done right, can look easy. Check out video: https://t.co/9OypFoxZk3
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) November 24, 2015
Bezos owns Blue Origin, and the historic landing of the rocket is something Musk’s SpaceX still hasn’t accomplished, reports Engadget.
Elon Musk argues semantics
Elon Musk, who is CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla Motors, tweeted a criticism about a claim made in the video Bezos tweeted. The video claimed the New Shepard vehicle successfully “flew to space” instead of into orbit. Musk pointed out the distinction between the two, which for the average, non-scientist person who is interested in space, might seem a bit like splitting hairs, although it is important to note when comparing the two companies.
It is, however, important to clear up the difference between “space” and “orbit”, as described well by https://t.co/7PD42m37fZ — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2015
SpaceX falling behind Blue Origin? Perhaps not
Musk also congratulated Bezos on Blue Origin’s success and, of course, reminded the Twitter-verse of all of SpaceX’s success so far.
@JeffBezos Not quite “rarest”. SpaceX Grasshopper rocket did 6 suborbital flights 3 years ago & is still around. pic.twitter.com/6j9ERKCNZl — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2015
Elon Musk often tweets about SpaceX and any innovations his companies are working on at a given moment. He certainly knows how to garner media attention for himself and his businesses. Jeff Bezos, however, is only just now getting in on Twitter, and (as of this writing anyway) has yet to tweet again even after all the comments he has received on his Blue Origin tweet.
Because Bezos is not as flashy as Musk is, his rocket company Blue Origin hasn’t had nearly the same amount of media attention, so today’s tweet comes as a bit of a surprise. Blue Origin successfully launched its New Shepard rocket, which flew into a suborbital height before separating and then successfully sticking a controlled landing with the assistance of a parachute after starting its own descent.
SpaceX, on the other hand, has not successfully stuck a perfect landing with its Falcon 9 rocket, although it has come close. Also the Falcon 9 is flying to a higher altitude—into orbit rather than a suborbital altitude—as Musk pointed out. In the Falcon 9’s last attempt to land, it exploded, causing a major setback for SpaceX.