The successful test flight of Elon Musk’s SpaceX starship is a major milestone for private space exploration.
But tensions continue to fuel with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, as his rival company Blue origin battles to send people to the moon too.
After 4 failed attempts that even ended in explosions… Elon Musk’s SpaceX has finally landed its futuristic starship
Live feed of Starship SN15 flight test → https://t.co/Hs5C53qBxb https://t.co/chZjdVAute
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 5, 2021
The Tesla CEO wants to land astronauts on the moon and send people to Mars.
This is a huge step in the program… to successfully launch a test flight of the mars rocket prototype.
The rocket launched and flew about 6 miles above Earth, then re-lit its engines and landed the SN15 prototype on the landing pad
Starship landing nominal!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 5, 2021
A fire at the base of the 50-metre rocket was quickly extinguished and the rocket remained standing after the six-minute flight.
HISTORY!!!!!!! On their 19th anniversary of being a company, @SpaceX proved their Starship vehicle’s wacky landing maneuver works!!! They NAILED THE LANDING!!! That was incredible!!! Congrats @elonmusk and the rest of the team!!!! That was unreal!!! pic.twitter.com/LYAE2Jr6KF
— Everyday Astronaut (@Erdayastronaut) May 5, 2021
NASA chose the SpaceX Starship to deliver astronauts to the moon in the next few years.
The 3 billion dollar contract was halted last week after Jeff Bezo’s company – blue origin protested it.
BATTLE OF THE BILLIONAIRES
The Amazon CEO announced Blue Origin will launch its new Sheppard rocket and capsule in July
The Sheppard’s flights are “sub-orbital” meaning they will take passengers on a short trip into space and back down to earth.
The company says “only 569 people have ever been over the so-called Kármán Line in space… and it wants to change this and change it dramatically”
SpaceX also plans to launch people into space by Autumn this year.
So the battle between the billionaires to turn their rockets to riches continues on… until the winner is crowned within the next one or two years.
