‘You can’t sue your way to the moon’-Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos
“I’ve spent my entire career working to extend people’s lives. However, with limited materials and energy on Earth, extending our reach into space can help humanity continue to thrive,”
The comment comes after Jeff Bezos’ company sued NASA following the space agency’s lunar lander contract with SpaceX.
Elon Musk has some thoughts about Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin suing NASA last month over the space agency’s lunar lander contract with Musk’s SpaceX.
“He should put more of his energy into getting into orbit than lawsuits,” Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said during an interview Tuesday with Kara Swisher at the Code conference in Los Angeles. “You can’t sue your way to the moon, no matter how good your lawyers are.”
Blue Origin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In April, NASA chose SpaceX and its Starship concept to provide the vehicle that’ll carry Artemis astronauts to the surface of the moon as soon as 2024. The decision to go with just SpaceX came as a surprise to many people who expected the space agency to choose two companies to create the lander designs. Blue Origin, the space company owned by Bezos, filed a complaint in federal court in August against NASA, alleging that the agency unjustly granted a lunar lander contract to SpaceX.
Earlier in Tuesday’s interview, Musk took a jab at other efforts to go into suborbital space. (Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic both took a trip to the edge of space in July.)
“Suborbital is a step in the direction of orbit,” he said to laughter from the crowd. “But it’s still good to do something in space.”
When asked specifically about Branson’s and Bezos’ efforts, Musk added, “I thought it was cool that they’re spending money on the advancement of space.”
On Monday, Blue Origin shared who’ll be in the cabin for the second crewed flight of the New Shepard vehicle in October: former NASA engineer Chris Boshuizen, as well as Glen de Vries, an entrepreneur and executive with French software company Dassault Systemes.
Musk’s comments come as he topped Forbes’ real-time billionaires list, with a net worth of over $200 billion. Bezos came in at No. 2, with a net worth of $193 billion.
It’s been over two months since a Blue Origin rocket carried founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Wally Funk and student Oliver Daemen on a 10-minute trip to space. Now the company has revealed who will be in the cabin for the follow-up crewed launch, and when that’ll happen.
The second crewed flight of the New Shepard vehicle and 18th flight overall will be carrying former NASA engineer Chris Boshuizen, who is also co-founder of satellite imaging company Planet Labs, along with Glen de Vries, an entrepreneur and executive with French software company Dassault Systemes.
De Vries’ career has centered on developing software that assists in medical research, and he sees space as a next logical step for humans.
“I’ve spent my entire career working to extend people’s lives. However, with limited materials and energy on Earth, extending our reach into space can help humanity continue to thrive,” he said in a statement.
Two other amateur astronauts will also be on board; Blue Origin says they will be announced in the coming days.
A Blue Origin spokesperson tells CNET that both Boshuizen and de Vries were involved in the charity auction that Blue Origin held for a seat on its first flight earlier this year.
In July, Blue Origin said the winner was unable to be on the July 20 flight with Bezos due to a scheduling conflict. Daemen, whose father was among the high bidders involved in the final round of the auction, ended up in that seat.
Blue Origin says neither Boshuizen nor de Vries was the auction winner, but that more details on the high bidder will be announced soon.
