Space race of century heats up as Bezos’ Blue Origin...

BILLIONAIRE duo Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are set to do battle in a supersonic race to the stars with both men now officially leaving orbit. The business moguls are vying to be crowned as the kings of space with them already flexing their interplanetary might with their towering rockets and ambitious plans for the future. A heated rivalry is starting to emerge between Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin companies.

Image Credit: The Sun [Starship rocket launching.]

The pair are both frantically working on their mammoth rocket ships to stamp their authority on the 21st-century space race, but who is currently edging ahead?. Bezos, the second-richest human alive, has been trying to break through into the world of intergalactic travel for years - finally finding success last month. He managed to blast his first spaceship, the New Glenn, into orbit in January and surpassed the achievements of Musk by using a more powerful rocket.

Image Credit: The Sun [Jeff Bezos in a blue Blue Origin flight suit.]

The Tesla CEO has been at the forefront of space expeditions in recent years ever since he launched SpaceX in 2002. Musk, the world's wealthiest person, has sent over 435 rockets into space - including the Falcon range and is now testing out the formidable Starship. Professor of Astrophysics and Space Science, Martin Barstow, gave his verdict on which billionaire's space company is edging ahead. He told The Sun: "I think Bezos is a bit behind the game and I'm not quite sure why.

Image Credit: The Sun [New Glenn rocket on the launchpad at night.]

"Musk has taken more risks in getting to where SpaceX has got to. "I don't think he has any more technical skills than Jeff Bezos but he's set out a really good dynamic and direction for his company.". Both men want similar outcomes from their investments and have been full of praise for each other's work in the past. Musk has been vocal about his desires to put man back on the Moon before jetting off to populate Mars.

Image Credit: The Sun [Illustration comparing Jeff Bezos' New Glenn and Elon Musk's Starship rockets, including cost, dimensions, and payload capacity.]

Bezos has also echoed these wishes while also wanting to create private space stations for inter-galactic holidays. Both are also setting their sights on satellites to help bolster up broadband internet services for Amazon and Starlink. Barstow, who teaches at the University of Leicester, is among a number of experts who are hopeful the friendly competition will only push both companies forwards to ensure more giant leaps for mankind.

Image Credit: The Sun [New Glenn rocket launching.]

Bezos' recent success has left him hot on the heels of Musk with the pair of them now raring to complete commercial space travel. Blue Origin's 321ft New Glenn rocket took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in January. Hundreds of hardworking staff members watched on as the spaceship made history as the first in company history to reach orbit. The New Glenn is a powerful rocket which is capable of carrying dozens of satellites into space.

Image Credit: The Sun [Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is currently developing thr latest new Glenn]

One of the main reasons for this is due to Amazon's Project Kuiper. Bezos is aiming to deploy over 3,000 low-earth satellites to help broadband internet services. The Kuiper project is again a direct competitor of Musk's Starlink megaconstellation. Bezos' company had already made several suborbital flights using a smaller rocket but never breached outside of orbit. The New Shepard carried equipment and even passengers to the edge of space but it was quickly outdone by the New Glenn.

Image Credit: The Sun [Portrait of Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen in Blue Origin flight suits.]

Blue Origin are also now working on a fancy space station floating above Earth designed for tourists. Orbital Reef has been described as a "mixed-use business park" that will serve as a science lab, a hotel and much more. One key area where Bezos is leading the way against Musk is in actual self-experience inside a spaceship. He rode on board the New Shepard NS-16 manned mission in July 2021 and managed to reach 351,000ft in the 10 minute journey.

Image Credit: The Sun [Rocket launching at night.]

Musk has never actually been to space himself despite the countless missions he has helped to launch. Elon Musk and SpaceX have been the leaders of the push for space travel across the last decade. Their Falcon 9 rocket has been the star in the SpaceX arsenal with it becoming the first orbital class rocket capable of re-flight when it first took off in 2010. Since then it has completed a whopping 425 missions with 381 successful landings - including the first to take humans to orbit a decade later.

Image Credit: The Sun [Falcon Heavy rocket on launchpad at night.]

This makes it the most-launched American orbital rocket in history standing at almost 230ft tall. Musk soon outdid his own achievements with a larger version of the same rocket called the Falcon Heavy. It features three reusable Falcon 9 nine-engine cores capable of generating more thrust than 18 747 aircrafts combined. It has completed 11 missions so far with the maiden launch being in 2018. Since finding success with the Falcon rocket variations, Musk has started to create an even bigger and better space vehicle.