Elon Musk takes swipe at Jeff Bezos: Check what he said

Elon Musk's SpaceX bid alone while Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin partnered with Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and Drape. (Image: AFP)

SpaceX chief Elon Musk took a dig at Billionaire Jeff Bezos 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.

If lobbying & lawyers could get u to orbit, Bezos would be on Pluto rn

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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2021

The two billionaires, 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.

Earlier this year in April, NASA rejecting Bezos’ Blue Origin's bid, had awarded Elon Musk's SpaceX, a $2.9 billion contract to build a spacecraft to bring astronauts to the lunar surface as early as 2024. The reason given was the space agency own funding shortfalls and SpaceX's proven record of orbital missions.

Following this, Blue Origin took the matter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office accusing NASA of giving SpaceX an unfair advantage by allowing it to revise its pricing. "NASA veered from its original dual-source acquisition strategy due to perceived near-term budgetary issues, and this offer removes that obstacle," Bezos wrote in the letter, as reported by Reuters.

Musk's SpaceX bid alone while Bezos' Blue Origin partnered with Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and Drape.

Musk had responded to the protest plea filed by Bezos saying: “Can’t get it up (to orbit) lol”. He did not elaborate on the tweet, but pasted a screenshot of a 2019 report about Bezos unveiling Blue Origin's moon lander on the same Twitter thread.

Blue Origin has fallen far behind SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) on orbital transportation, losing out on billions of dollars' worth of U.S. national security launch contracts that begin in 2022. ULA is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp.