Billionaire Twitter Spat After Rocket Launch

Billionaire space entrepreneur Elon Musk has hit back after Amazon boss Jeff Bezos boasted on social media about launching and landing his own spacecraft.

Mr Bezos, 51, used his first ever tweet to announce that his space firm Blue Origin had successfully launched a rocket called New Shepard, which later had a controlled landing.

He posted a video with the message: "The rarest of beasts - a used rocket. Controlled landing not easy, but done right, can look easy."

But Elon Musk, who founded rival firm SpaceX, took exception to Mr Bezos' claim.

He wrote: "@JeffBezos: Not quite 'rarest'. SpaceX Grasshopper rocket did six suborbital flights three years ago and is still around."

Rocket

He followed up with a tweet saying: "Jeff maybe unaware SpaceX suborbital vertical takeoff and landing flight began 2013. Orbital water landing 2014. Orbital land landing next."

He then posted a link to the North American X-15 - a rocket-powered aircraft which first took flight in 1959 - saying: "Credit for 1st reusable suborbital rocket goes to X-15."

Mr Bezos' video shows New Shepard making its first flight, blasting off from a launch site in West Texas.

It went 60 miles above Earth, before slowly falling back down again - reigniting its engines around a mile above the surface for a controlled landing.

Mr Bezos, who made billions by founding Amazon, called it "one of the greatest moments in my life".

Several billionaires are privately funding their own space projects.

Mr Musk set up SpaceX after making billions co-founding PayPal and Tesla Motors.

He says he wants to send humans to Mars' surface within the next 20 years.

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