Tesla billionaire Elon Musk ended up chuckling at a Jeff Bezos spaceship comparison that went viral on Twitter.
On Tuesday, Musk responded with a laughing emoji to a post that suggests Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin ripped off SpaceX over its Project Jarvis spacecraft with vertical landing.
Last month, Blue Origin unveiled Project Jarvis, a fully reusable rocket prototype for the Blue Origin New Glenn that will land vertically, similar to SpaceX’s Starship.
Someone on Twitter who goes by /r/SpaceX Masterrace took to their profile to share a photo of the Project Jarvis trial tanks at the Blue Origin Texas site.
“Hey Elon, Can I Copy Your Homework?” they wrote.
The SpaceX CEO responded with a pair of “rolling on the floor laughing” emojis, implying that he agreed with the claim that Blue Origin was mimicking SpaceX.
Check out some reactions to Musk’s tweet below.
This is the latest escalation in the feud between the two space billionaires, which began when Blue Origin released a series of infographics saying the SpaceX lunar lander was “unsafe” after NASA granted SpaceX the single contract rather than numerous competitors.
Musk has also taken aim at Bezos, tweeting that Blue Origin ‘Can’t get it up (to orbit)’ after the company filed a protest against NASA.
The feud between two of the world’s most affluent men dates back to 2004, when they clashed over their space ambitions, and it’s been simmering ever since.
Both have long-held space dreams, with Bezos establishing Blue Origin in 2000 and Musk establishing SpaceX in 2002, both with the goal of building reusable rockets.
The rivalry reached a tipping point in 2013, when Jeff Bezos launched a push to deny SpaceX exclusive use of a NASA launchpad.
Musk thought this was “phony” and even accused Blue Origin of failing to produce a viable suborbital spacecraft ‘despite spending over 10 years in development” which is something New Shepard accomplished two years later in 2015.
Blue Origin was granted one in 2014 for drone ships used to land rocket boosters, but SpaceX won the patent and compelled Blue Origin to remove the majority of the claims.
As the two compete to construct the largest rockets, Musk’s latest comment could exacerbate the situation.
Blue Origin is working on the New Glenn rocket, and it just announced that it would be creating heavier-duty vertical landing stages for it.
The first photographs of the prototype appeared to be quite similar to early designs of the SpaceX Starship, prompting Musk to ‘laugh’ at a tweet implying Blue Origin was plagiarizing SpaceX’s homework.
In July, Blue Origin alleged that NASA had “moved the goalposts at the last minute” and decided on a selection that is “high risk.”
Starship is a ‘launch vehicle that has never flown to orbit and is still being designed,’ according to an infographic.
According to SpaceX, the first orbital launch will take place within the next few months.
SpaceX, on the other hand, has launched more than 100 rockets into orbit with its Falcon 9 rockets, whereas Bezos’ business has yet to reach orbit.
Musk’s major ambition for space is to construct a viable colony on Mars, whereas Bezos wants to send people to space.
Due to an ongoing legal case delaying the SpaceX lunar lander project and a competition to see who has the biggest rocket, the feud between the two is unlikely to stop anytime soon.