Rivalry or Bromance? Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos Tweet Each Other Ahead of Falcon Heavy Launch

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk
(Left) Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of the spaceflight company Blue Origin, and Elon Musk (right), founder and CEO of SpaceX, have a sometimes friendly rivalry on Twitter. (Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty; Justin Chin/Bloomberg/Getty)

We think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship — between two billionaires with their own spaceflight companies.  

Jeff Bezos, founder of the private spaceflight company Blue Origin, tweeted well wishes to Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, on the eve of the latter company's maiden launch of its new megarocket, the Falcon Heavy. Musk replied with what might have been a somewhat cold, one-word response ("Thanks"), had it not been followed by an emoji blowing a kiss in Bezos' direction. 

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Bezos' tweet earned a positive response from people on Twitter, who appreciated the show of good sportsmanship. Musk's response, though, has sent spaceflight fans into a bit of a tizzy. Is Musk teasing Bezos, or is this the start of a playful friendship between the two entrepreneurs?

The two CEOs have exchanged words on Twitter before, but some of those interactions seemed to have a competitive tone that bordered on hostile, prompting cries of a space rivalry. That, in part, has fueled public discussion about the relationship between these two internet billionaires, who actually have quite a bit in common: Both men created their own spaceflight companies as passion projects after making their fortunes elsewhere, and both men have spoken publicly about big visions for humanity's future in space, with Musk eager to colonize Mars and Bezos dreaming of having "millions of people" living and working in space. Both companies have also announced projects that will involve sending cargo or human passengers to the moon. 

SpaceX is regularly flying payloads on its Falcon 9 rocket, while Blue Origin has yet to fly customers on even its suborbital rocket, New Shepard, although the booster has been demonstrated in test flights and landings. Blue Origin is also working on an orbital rocket called New Glenn, but it is not clear when those will be ready to fly. Clearly, the kind of ambition needed to achieve goals of this magnitude also comes with a competitive spirit. 

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Calla Cofield
Senior Writer

Calla Cofield joined Space.com's crew in October 2014. She enjoys writing about black holes, exploding stars, ripples in space-time, science in comic books, and all the mysteries of the cosmos. Prior to joining Space.com Calla worked as a freelance writer, with her work appearing in APS News, Symmetry magazine, Scientific American, Nature News, Physics World, and others. From 2010 to 2014 she was a producer for The Physics Central Podcast. Previously, Calla worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (hands down the best office building ever) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California. Calla studied physics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is originally from Sandy, Utah. In 2018, Calla left Space.com to join NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory media team where she oversees astronomy, physics, exoplanets and the Cold Atom Lab mission. She has been underground at three of the largest particle accelerators in the world and would really like to know what the heck dark matter is. Contact Calla via: E-Mail – Twitter