Elon Musk trolls Jeff Bezos over his ‘spaceship that can’t reach orbit’

Billionaire Elon Musk has taken aim at Jeff Bezos just hours ahead of his maiden space voyage on board the Blue Origin overnight.

Elon Musk took aim at Jeff Bezos just hours ahead of the Amzon founder’s maiden space voyage overnight.

The SpaceX boss took to Twitter to poke fun at Bezos’ flight plan, which took him than 100km above Earth on board a rocket built by Bezo’s company, Blue Origin.

It’s the latest shot fired in a 15-year feud between the two billionaires.

Their US-based rocket-making companies are at the forefront of the emerging private space sector and compete for lucrative NASA contracts.

Ahead of 57-year-old Bezos’ trip on Tuesday – Musk, 50, released a number of memes about the Amazon founder and his mission.

One mocked the fact that the launch would only reach an altitude of 100km.

While this is the internationally recognised boundary of space, it’s a long way short of Earth’s orbit, where SpaceX launches typically reach.

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Elon Musk has fired shots at Jeff Bezos. Picture: Brendan Smialowski / AFP.

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The California company regularly flies astronauts and cargo all the way up to the International Space Station, around 400km above Earth.

The four-panel Star Wars-themed meme jokingly highlighted that Bezos is “going to space,” but not “orbital.” Musk replied: “Haha”.

Musk also responded to a tweet that referenced a conversation between the two space billionaires held over dinner in 2004.

“In 2004, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos met for a meal to discuss space. It was one of their few in-person interactions,” the tweet began.

In a reference to Bezos’ infamous transformation from weedy tech geek to musclebound mogul in the years since, Musk replied: “Now, he can bench press a rhino”.

Musk has publicly derided his fellow magnate before, once calling him a “copycat” on Twitter after Amazon acquired self-driving start-up and Tesla rival Zoox.

There is ongoing rivalry between the two billionaires. Picture: Brendan Smialowski and MANDEL NGAN / AFP.

When the BBC asked Musk about Bezos in 2016, he responded, “Jeff who?”

However, the powerful CEO’s sharp tongue softened on Monday.

In response to a tweet about Bezos’ flight posted by the official Blue Origin account, Musk replied: “Best of luck tomorrow”

Bezos embarked on a four-minute space jaunt on board Blue Origin’s automated spaceship, New Shepard.

The rocket launched from a base in the west Texas desert at 8:12am on Tuesday local time (11:12pm AEST), and hit speeds of 3700km/h as it shot towards space.

The reusable craft flew to an altitude of 100 km – hitting the internationally agreed upon edge of space.

It was Blue Origin’s first human spaceflight.

pic.twitter.com/FlmH7gUxiy

— Charly (@Charly923407591) July 17, 2021

Haha

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 17, 2021

In 2004, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos met for a meal to discuss space.

It was one of their few in-person interactions.

That conversation perfectly captures the different approaches they've taken to space (and why SpaceX has pulled ahead of Blue Origin).

Here's the story 🧵 pic.twitter.com/g1XtoheHeY

— Trung Phan 🇨🇦 (@TrungTPhan) July 17, 2021

Our astronauts have completed training and are a go for launch. #NSFirstHumanFlightpic.twitter.com/rzkQgqVaB6

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) July 19, 2021

Best of luck tomorrow!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2021

Bezos, 57, and younger brother Mark, 53, were joined by two additional passengers.

The first to be revealed was Wally Funk, an 82-year-old woman who trained to be an astronaut in the 1960s but was never given the chance to fly.

A fourth seat was snapped up by Dutch teenager and high school graduate Oliver Daemen, son of millionaire Joes Daemen.

It’s unclear how much Joes, founder and CEO of the Dutch investment company Somerset Capital Partners, paid for his 18-year-old son’s ticket.

The spare seat was initially sold at auction for $28 million to a mystery buyer who later pulled out of the flight due to “scheduling conflicts”.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and has been republished with permission