Well look who entered the shade-throwing game on Twitter: Mr. Jeff Bezos.
Fresh from landing a rocket through his space company Blue Origin, the Amazon founder jabbed at SpaceX after the company successfully landed a Falcon 9 rocket for the first time today.
Congrats @SpaceX on landing Falcon's suborbital booster stage. Welcome to the club!
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 22, 2015
“Welcome to the club” — ouch!!
Eagle-eyed viewers (and those who hang out on Twitter all day) will recall that SpaceX founder Elon Musk first lit this spark when he congratulated Bezos and Blue Origin for its achievement last month, while also pointing out the different between “orbital” and sub-orbital” rockets.
Congrats to Jeff Bezos and the BO team for achieving VTOL on their booster
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2015
Getting to space needs ~Mach 3, but GTO orbit requires ~Mach 30. The energy needed is the square, i.e. 9 units for space and 900 for orbit.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2015
Jeff maybe unaware SpaceX suborbital VTOL flight began 2013. Orbital water landing 2014. Orbital land landing next. https://t.co/S6WMRnEFY5
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2015
But credit for 1st reusable suborbital rocket goes to X-15 https://t.co/LSb0f8FLJd
And Burt Rutan for commercialhttps://t.co/TGWlNjsyQz— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2015
The problem with Bezos’ retort today — amusing though it is to see billionaires sparring over their respective space programs — is that SpaceX isn’t joining Blue Origin’s club because SpaceX has been landing small rockets for years.
But beyond that, any comparison between Blue Origin and Falcon 9 is mis-matched.
As TechCrunch’s own rocket enthusiast Matt Burns described it, comparing the two landings is like “comparing parallel parking a bike and a huge SUV.”
The Falcon 9 which landed today is a huge rocket. The cargo on board this trip included 11 satellites, which are contained within a payload that is not reusable and did not reland.
The Falcon 9 is a serious rocket, capable of reaching 124 miles up thanks to the 1.5 million pounds of thrust produced by its 9 engines. It’s designed to take serious payloads into serious orbit. The Blue Origin is capable of taking a few humans 62 miles into the sky — which is still great.
Let’s see if Elon Musk comes back with a further retort or leaves it for others to give Bezos a little context.
Next round soon…
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