In a rare exchange of pleasantries between the two billionaires who are usually seen exchanging barbs, Jeff Bezos congratulated Elon Musk for the SpaceX's all-civilian Inspiration4 crew that was launched on September 15.
“Congratulations to @elonmusk and the @SpaceX team on their successful Inspiration4 launch last night. Another step towards a future where space is accessible to all of us,” Bezos wrote in a tweet.
In response, Musk obliged with a “Thank you”.
A billionaire e-commerce executive and three less-wealthy private citizens chosen to join him blasted off from Florida on Wednesday aboard a SpaceX rocket ship and soared into orbit, the first all-civilian crew ever to circle the Earth from space.
The quartet of amateur astronauts, led by the American founder and chief executive of financial services firm Shift4 Payments Inc, Jared Isaacman, lifted off just before sunset from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
The flight, representing the first crewed mission to orbit with no professional astronauts, is expected to last about three days from launch to splashdown in the Atlantic, mission officials said.
It also marked the debut flight of SpaceX owner Musk's new orbital tourism business, and a leap ahead of competitors likewise offering rides on rocket ships to customers willing to pay a small fortune for the exhilaration - and bragging rights - of spaceflight.
The two billionaires have locked horns recently Musk had responded to Amazon’s lawsuit saying that filing legal actions against his company is Jeff Bezos' full time job.
This came after Amazon asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to dismiss SpaceX’s latest amendment to its Starlink satellite network, CNBC had reported.
“While Amazon has waited 15 months to explain how its system works, it has lodged objections to SpaceX on average about 16 days this year,” SpaceX had said in a letter addressed to Marlene Dotch, Secretary at FCC.
In August, Musk took a dig at the Blue Origin founder for trying to lobby the government instead of focusing on building rockets. “If lobbying and lawyers could get you to orbit, Bezos would be on Pluto right now,” Musk said in a tweet in response to a user on the microblogging platform.
The two technocrats who have been trying to launch long-range orbital rockets, were competing for a coveted contract from the government to build a spaceship to deliver astronauts to the moon as early as 2024.
[Input from Reuters]
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