‘You cannot sue your way to the moon’
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Jeff Bezos, left, and Elon Musk
Getty Images; Reuters
Elon Musk repeated prior criticisms of fellow billionaire space mogul Jeff Bezos, as their respective companies continue to battle in federal court and in front of regulators.
“I think I’ve expressed my thoughts on that front – I think he should put more of his energy into getting to orbit, [rather] than lawsuits,” Musk said Tuesday at the CodeCon 2021 conference in Beverly Hills, California.
Musk said, “You can’t sue to get to the moon no matter how great your lawyers are.”
Bezos’ Blue Origin is suing SpaceX, by way of NASA, in the U.S. Federal Court of Claims over a $2.9 billion astronaut lunar lander contract the agency awarded Musk’s company earlier this year. Blue Origin went on a public relations offensive in August after the Government Accountability Office shot down the company’s protest, with Bezos’ venture calling SpaceX’s Starship rocket an “immensely complex & high risk” way to deliver NASA astronauts to the moon.
Additionally, Amazon has filed protests to the Federal Communications Commission over SpaceX proposals for its Starlink satellite internet. Amazon, which is currently working on Project Kuiper to create its own satellite internet service, stated in a filing, that SpaceX’s Starlink Amendment “fails all tests” at the FCC.
Musk’s company responded The CEO pointed out that Amazon had “submitted objections to SpaceX an average of 16 times per year” and that the company has been following up via Twitter.
“Filing legal actions against SpaceX is *actually* his full-time job,” Musk tweeted of Bezos on Sept. 1.
Musk said to Kara Swisher (Recode editor-at Large) at CodeCon that he did not understand why Bezos was not putting more energy into the company space company he created in 2000. While Bezos has doubled the amount of time he spends weekly at Blue Origin, as CNBC reported on Monday, his commitment is limited to two afternoons a week.
Swisher was asked if Musk had ever spoken to Bezos. Musk responded that he did not speak but does tweet if needed.
Musk stated to Swisher that he encouraged him to focus on getting to orbit.
Sir Richard Branson (left), in space with mission specialists Sirisha Bamba and Beth Moses, July 11, 2021.
Virgin Galactic
Musk also said he thinks it is “cool” that fellow billionaires Bezos and Sir Richard Branson are “spending money on the advancement of space.”
“I think [ultimately humanity should] want to be a space-faring civilization out there among the stars,” Musk said. “All these things that we see in science fiction – movies and books – we want those to be like real one day, not always fiction. It’s a good thing that so many people spend their money on space technology.
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