Even the Milky Way seems too small to keep the egos of tech billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk from colliding as they vie to conquer space.
Musk aimed low with a recent tweet saying “can’t get it up (to orbit)” in response to a post about Bezos-founded space company Blue Origin protesting NASA’s choice of Musk’s SpaceX team to build a module that will land the next US astronauts on the moon. “This is more than just a battle for space,” said Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives. “There is some ego at play as well; this has become even more personal.”
The tech entrepreneurs have each channeled some of their vast fortunes into private space exploration companies since early this century. Bezos, 57, is founder of Blue Origin as well as of e-commerce colossus Amazon. Forbes ranks him the richest person on this planet, worth some $202 billion.
Musk, the colorful 49-year-old founder of Tesla and SpaceX as well as other companies, including one working to mesh human brains with computers, is in third place with a worth of $173 billion, according to the ranking. Dreams of private companies taking to the stars — instead of leaving such wonders to governments — have developed into projects to deploy networks of satellites providing wireless internet service and for space tourism. While SpaceX and Blue Origin have the benefit of founders with ample financial resources, they also compete for contracts with US military or space agencies.