print-icon
print-icon

Elon Musk Says Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Attempts "To Impede SpaceX's Progress By Lawfare" 

Tyler Durden's Photo
by Tyler Durden
Tuesday, Jun 25, 2024 - 08:40 PM

A number of X users, including Tesla investor Sawyer Merritt, revealed on Tuesday afternoon that Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, has filed a comment to the Federal Aviation Administration, indicating that SpaceX's Starship-Super Heavy launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida, should be limited for "environmental scrutiny due to their impact on the local environment and community."

This suggests that Blue Origin is failing to innovate as its rocket program stalls. It must now resort to litigation as SpaceX, according to data from BryceTech, is the world's leader in rocket launches and lifting mass to outer space, far outpacing entire countries, including Russia and China. 

For some context, SpaceX launched 525 spacecraft into orbit in the first quarter.

SpaceX launched about 429,125 kg of spacecraft upmass in the quarter, significantly outpacing China's rocket program (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation), which launched a measly 29,426 kg. 

Blue Origin was founded by Bezos in 2000. Two years later, Musk founded SpaceX, which achieved orbit in 2008. Since then, SpaceX has had hundreds of rocket launches and multiple crewed missions to the International Space Station. Meanwhile, Blue Origin has yet to achieve orbit in 2024. 

Musk chimed in on Merritt's screenshot of Blue Origin's FAA comment: "An obviously disingenuous response. Not cool of them to try (for the third time) to impede SpaceX's progress by lawfare." 

The billionaire added: 

Besides Blue Origin, the Biden administration has weaponized federal agencies against SpaceX to impede launches.

Here's our reporting from last fall: 

Late last year, Musk described the apparent 'beef' that the Biden administration has had with him. In September, he told All-In Podcast host entrepreneur David Sacks:

"...there does seem to be some significant increase in the weaponization of government and really sort of misuse of prosecutorial discretion in many areas... I think this is really a dangerous thing for there to be partisan politics with government agencies."

Musk continued:

"I don't think the whole administration has it out for me.

"But I think there's probably aspects of the administration... or aspects of interests aligned with President Biden who probably do not wish good things for me."

More recently, Musk commented on X that the federal government wasted tens of billions of dollars without connecting any homes in rural America to the internet. He said SpaceX's Starlink could've hooked up rural America for a fraction of the cost. 

Here's what X users are saying about Blue Origin's FAA comment:

0
Loading...