Elon Musk trolls Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin after it challenges SpaceX's NASA lunar lander contract
- Elon Musk trolled Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin on Twitter amid a battle over a $2.9 billion NASA contract.
- Blue Origin reportedly protested NASA’s choice to award an exclusive lunar lander contract to SpaceX.
- Musk and Bezos have feuded for more than 15 years over their space ambitions.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took another jab at rival billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space startup, Blue Origin, on Monday amid a battle over a $2.9 billion contract to build a lunar lander for NASA.
The New York Times reported Monday Blue Origin had filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office to challenge NASA’s decision to award the exclusive contract to SpaceX.
Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith told The Times NASA had erred in its assessment of the proposals submitted by his company, SpaceX, and a third bidder, Dynetics.
On Twitter, Musk responded to the report about Blue Origin’s challenge by making a thinly veiled joke about the male anatomy, saying: “Can’t get it up (to orbit) lol.”
The joke alluded to the fact that Blue Origin has not yet achieved a successful orbital spaceflight with its rockets.
Blue Origin did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Blue Origin earlier this year launched its suborbital New Shepherd rocket system with a crash-test dummy dubbed “Mannequin Skywalker,” but has lagged overall in its space race compared to Musk’s SpaceX.
The feud between Musk and Bezos began more than 15 years ago when a conversation about reusable rockets reportedly went south. Since then, the two execs have sparred frequently over their rival plans for colonizing space and occasionally their other businesses, Tesla and Amazon.
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