Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has joined Twitter and his first tweet is combination of totally awesome bravado and a subtle-but-not-subtle dig at Elon Musk.
You see, the tweet contains a link to video footage of Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket taking off, flying to its planned test altitude of 329 839 feet (100.5 kilometers) and landing again.
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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
Of course, Musk couldn’t let a slight like that go, pointing out that SpaceX’s sub-orbital rockets had also managed to land again after taking off and reaching significant altitudes.
@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
The billionaire innovator did however acknowledge that the Grasshopper rocket had never quite reached the same altitude as Blue Origins’ New Shepard space vehicle.
The footage comes slightly out of the blue, with SpaceX having received much more headline space over the past couple of years. If Blue Origins can replicate and go beyond the achievements shown in the video posted by Bezos, then it suggests that the private space race is about to seriously heat up.
Check out the video below.
