Space rivals Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are at it again, this time over NASA’s decision to award Elon Musk’s SpaceX the lunar lander contract over Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Shortly after the New York Times published a scoop on Bezos’ move to file a protest against NASA for choosing SpaceX over Blue Origin, Elon Musk took to Twitter to do what he does best—troll.
In a reply to an NYT journalist’s tweet, Musk joked that Jeff Bezos “can’t get it up (to orbit),” poking fun at Blue Origin’s contract loss at Bezos’ expense.
According to the NYT, Blue Origin filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) over NASA’s $2.9-billion contract, which was awarded to Musk’s SpaceX. The contract gives SpaceX the funds needed to build the spacecraft that will land American astronauts on the Moon. The last time NASA sent someone to the Moon was in 1972 during the Apollo 17 mission.
SpaceX was one of three bidders for the contract, the others being Bezos’ Blue Origin and a defense company called Dynetics. Dynetics has also filed a protest with GAO. Both are contesting NASA’s decision, citing a flawed and unfair evaluation of bids.
SpaceX and Blue Origin have long been at odds with one another as the two are the primary competitors in commercial space travel. Meanwhile, the companies’ founders Musk and Bezos have been notorious rivals, and the feud is only heating up as the space race continues.
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