The space race, once a competition between rival countries, has become a battle between billionaires. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon and rocket company Blue Origin), have been in a space race since Musk established his space exploration company SpaceX in 2002.

Both are competing to develop an important lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis mission in 2024, however they have distinctly different dreams. Musk, the founder of SpaceX, wants to launch people to Mars and establish a self-sustaining city there, using the red planet as a base from which to further explore the solar system. Bezos, meanwhile, talks of using his rocket company Blue Origin to put a permanent base on the moon, build up huge space colonies, and eventually have 1 trillion people living and working in space.

Blue Origin's pace still seems slower than Space X, which sent rockets into orbit 6 years after its foundation. While SpaceX has cooperated with NASA, Blue Origin is working with private companies to sell rockets to other private companies such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The two companies are making conflicting moves, but it's not inconceivable that they will one day work together in space.

L.L.F reporter Hyeon-Bin Song