Is it a coincidence that the two wealthiest individuals on the planet are both nursing space transport dreams? Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are both front runners in the two foremost and advanced space programs on the planet at the moment.
Although their motive, which is to kickstart some sort of backup civilization for human beings, align, both billionaires disagree on how to go about it. Before we dive into the disparity in Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos’ space visions, let us quickly examine their space programs.
READ: How Elon Musk lost $8 billion this week
Space Exploration Technology Corps (SPACE X)
Space X was founded by Elon Musk in 2002 and is headquartered at Hawthorn California. The goal of the company is to make Space travel affordable to ordinary people. It hopes to kickstart human colonization and inhabitation of planet Mars.
Space X manufactures two of its foremost space vessels the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles. It also manufactures other components that make space travel easy and affordable.
Space X is by far the more advanced of the two space programs. It has already put 700 Starlink satellites in space with over 120 being manufactured every month.
According to Business Insider, Space X is worth $33bn dollars
READ: Battle of Titans: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos share world’s richest title
Blue Origin
Blue origin was founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos and is headquartered in Kent, Washington DC. Blue Origin aims to make access to space cheaper and more reliable through reusable launch vehicles. It believes it can put 1 trillion people in space making use of hanging colonies on space. Blue Origin is the less successful of the two programs having failed to launch a single satellite into space.
Elon Musk’s Vision
Elon Musk envisions a life outside the planet Earth. He strongly believes human beings can inhabit Mars in Mega Cities and it can serve as a backup to earth should World War 3 or any major global disaster occur.
According to Business Insider, Elon Musk hopes to create the first sustainable city in Mars by 2050. The Company hopes to commence launching cargoes with building equipment in 2024 and hopefully, a permanent city would begin to take shape by the 2030s.
Elon Musk’s space company is valued at $33bn with its initial funding coming from his big payout from selling PayPal. He funds his SpaceX by getting contracts and investors for it.
READ: World richest man, Jeff Bezos holds 5% of his wealth in cash
Jeff Bezos’ Vision
Jeff Bezos’ vision for his space program is slightly different from that of Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos does not agree with the Mass Inhabitation of Mars by Elon Musk. He rather believes his Blue Origin company can come up with “floating cities” on space that can house 1 trillion people. Jeff Bezos funds his Blue Origin project by allocating a certain percentage of his Amazon shares for it. Last year he allocated a whopping $3.1bn to his Blue Origin project.
READ: Jeff Bezos to step down as Amazon CEO
Billionaires at play
Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are the two richest individuals on the planet. Little wonder they can afford to pursue these ambitions. Elon Musk is clearly leading the space race with a more Robust SpaceX and cutting-edge drive, while Jeff Bezos, the older and richer of the duo seems to be taking his time. Jeff Bezos puts in more funds into his blue Origin Project while Elon Musk struggles a bit with funding Space X, relying on contracts and investors to get by.
What to know
- Elon Musk is the younger of the two billionaires and exudes a youthful aura which sort of gives him an edge over Jeff Bezos. He is seen as the exciting youthful tech billionaire who was once smoking pot on live TV.
- Both Space X and Blue Origin enjoy subtle help from NASA, America’s authoritative Space Body.
Michael,
I just read your article. It was an honest reflection of those highly accomplished men’s visions for space. I respect both men for their can-do attitude and for demonstrating that the future of space belongs to private sectors, while working with governmental entities, of course. HOWEVER, establishing humanity on other planets are going to require a LOT MORE than just throwing cash around (Yes, I know “cash is the king”). Just because someone is a very successful entrepreneur does not necessarily make him/her a great visionary. Telling the world, lets just “nuke Mars” or we should all float in space and look down to earth as some kind of future theme park are ridiculous at best. Furthermore, doing things the same old way with some improvements, hardly qualify as having great visions for the future of humanity in space. I always say, ONLY BOLD VISIONS MAKE HISTORY! However, they also have to be practical and they usually demand lots of personal courage (beyond just spending cash), passion and even sacrifice to say the least. You’ll find out about true American visions for the future of humanity in space soon enough. Thank you for that article.
Very far from timely article, with rafts of articles on this topic having been published to date. Their approach is vastly different and has so far resulted in vastly different results. With BO having a kind of last-laugh mantra, results have been minimal and their products, although great achievements in itself, are so far behind SpaceX that they are near obsolete when they finally start flying. New Sheppard, years late, will fly suborbital hops around the time when SpaceX is starting to fly commercial orbital tourist missions. The impressive partially reusable New Glenn, recently delayed again, may very well fly when we see SpaceX much larger and fully reusable StarShip starting to fly to orbit, with potential to disrupt the entire global launch market all over again. Jeff has deep pockets, but by being late BO has missed out on billions of launch contracts of which SpaceX has been the biggest beneficiary, most notable the latest NASA HLS award. Maybe BO will have that last laugh, but at this rate that will likely not be in Musk’s or Bezos’ lifetime. BO won a contract of nuclear propulsion recently among other contractors, which although small for now, is the only true area where BO can differentiate and potentialy surpass SpaceX in the short term. Perhaps a less lazily written article would have focussed on this…