Both men loved space, and like the railroad tycoons of a century ago, their rivalry helped advance humanity in the field. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have been entangled since 2013. Their competition includes: renting the famous 39A launch pad at Cape Canaveral (Musk won), being the first to land a rocket that reaches the edge of space smoothly (Bezos won), launching the rocket into a predetermined orbit (Musk won), and sending humans into a predetermined orbit (Musk won). The battle between these two billionaires in space was exciting.
Famous biographer Isaacson describes this process in detail in his new work "The Biography of Elon Musk". With the authorization of the publisher, China Business News has excerpted some of the chapters for the benefit of readers.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is an energetic billionaire with a hearty laugh and a big boy's enthusiasm. He is high-spirited on the road to realizing his dreams, but he is methodical and energetic in doing things. Like Musk, he was a fan of science fiction as a child, spending time in the science fiction section of his local library and devouring the works of Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein.
In July 1969, a 5-year-old Bezos watched television coverage of the Apollo 11 mission and saw Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. Bezos said it was "a momentous moment" for him. He later financed a series of missions to salvage and restore the Apollo 11 engine from the Atlantic Ocean, then placed it in an alcove outside the living room of his Washington, D.C., home.
Bezos' love for space has made him a hardcore fan of "Star Trek" and he knows every episode by heart. When he graduated from high school, he delivered a graduation speech as the outstanding valedictorian. The topic of his speech was about how to colonize other planets, build space hotels, and find other locations for industrial production activities to save our planet. At the end of his speech, he said: "Space, the last frontier of mankind, we will meet there!"
In 2000, after building Amazon into the global leader in online retail, Bezos quietly founded a company called Blue Origin, named after the pale blue planet where humans originated. Like Musk, he's focused on the idea of building a reusable rocket. "What's the difference between 2000 and 1960?" Bezos said. "The difference is that we have computer sensors, cameras and various software, which provide technical support for rockets to land vertically, but these technologies did not exist in 1960."
Like Musk, in the early days of their space career, they viewed it as a mission rather than a tool for profit-seeking. After all, there are many easier ways to make money. Bezos believes that human civilization will soon strain the resources on our small planet, and we will face a multiple-choice question: Should we accept a static growth model, or expand our territory beyond the Earth? "I don't think static growth is compatible with free human development," he said. "There's one way we can solve this problem: to expand beyond the solar system."
They met in 2004, when Bezos accepted Musk's invitation to visit SpaceX. He was later surprised when he received a seemingly brusque email from Musk, in which Musk complained that Bezos had not invited him to visit the Blue Origin factory in Seattle. He was angry, and Bezos immediately invited him. Musk and Justine flew over to visit Blue Origin and later had dinner with Bezos and his then-wife, MacKenzie. Musk was full of suggestions after seeing the factory, and as usual, he spoke out all of them. Musk warned Bezos that his ideas were leading Blue Origin down the wrong path: "Man, we tried it and it didn't work, so I'm telling you, don't make the same mistake we made."
Bezos recalled that Musk had not yet successfully launched the rocket, so he felt that Musk was a little overconfident. The next year, Musk asked Bezos to arrange for Amazon to review Justine's new book, an urban horror thriller about a demon-human hybrid. Bezos explained that he didn't specify what Amazon would review, but said he would personally post a reader review. Musk’s reply was anything but polite, but Bezos nonetheless posted a personal review praising the book.
Beginning in 2011, SpaceX won a series of contracts from NASA to develop a rocket that could carry humans to the International Space Station, a mission that became critical as the space shuttle retired. In order to complete this mission, SpaceX needs to add facilities to the Cape Canaveral launch pad 40, and Musk has taken a liking to the most prestigious launch facility there, the 39A launch pad, and he wants to rent it.
Launch Pad 39A has always been the center stage for America's space age dream. It is deeply imprinted in the memory of a generation of television viewers. When the countdown shouts "10, 9, 8...", they will collectively hold their breath. When Bezos was a child, he watched Neil Armstrong perform the moon landing mission. His rocket was launched from launch pad 39A in 1969. The last manned mission to the moon in 1972 was also here. The first space mission carried out by the space shuttle in 1981 and the last space mission in 2011 were launched here.
But in 2013, as the space shuttle program was shelved, America's space dream that had lasted for half a century was like fireworks blooming in the sky, with a bang, and then disappeared into the silent night. The rust on the 39A launch pad is becoming increasingly mottled, and the vines in the flame guide are growing wantonly. NASA is also eager to lease it out. Musk is a customer with clear leasing intentions. His Falcon 9 rocket has performed many cargo missions at the nearby Launch Pad 40, and Obama has also visited this launch pad. But when the 39A launch pad was open for bidding, Jeff Bezos decided to bid with Musk out of his personal feelings for the launch pad and some practical considerations.
When NASA eventually awarded the lease to SpaceX, Bezos sued. Musk was furious, declaring that Blue Origin’s objection to the tender was ridiculous and “they haven’t even put a toothpick into orbit.” He ridiculed Bezos's rockets, saying they could only bounce to the edge of the atmosphere and then fall because they had no ability to escape Earth's gravity, let alone the powerful thrust needed to enter a predetermined orbit. "If in the next five years they can really build an aircraft that meets NASA's manned rating certification and can successfully dock with the space station and make full use of the 39A launch pad, we will be happy to meet their needs." Musk said, "To be honest, I think the rocket they made is likely to have sparks flying during launch, with flames flying around like a dancing unicorn."
Space tycoons whose seeds were planted in their minds by reading science fiction novels as children have gone to war. A SpaceX employee actually bought dozens of inflatable unicorn toys, stuffed them into the flame guide of launch pad 39A and took a photo.
Bezos eventually rented Launch Pad 36 near Launch Pad 39A at Cape Canaveral, which had been the starting point for exploration missions to Mars and Venus. Therefore, these two childlike billionaires are destined to continue the space race. The change of ownership of these significant launch pads represents, both symbolically and literally, that the mantle of space exploration in the John F. Kennedy era has been passed from the government to the private sector, from the once glorious but now rigid NASA to a new group of pioneering entrepreneurs, whose hearts are driven by a strong sense of mission.
Musk and Bezos both have a vision: to realize human space travel, reusable rockets must be built. Bezos is very concerned about the manufacturing of sensors and software that guide the rocket back to Earth for a soft landing, but this is only part of the challenge. The greater difficulty is integrating these functions on the rocket and keeping the rocket lightweight so that the engine has enough thrust to send it into the intended orbit. Musk is crazy about this physics problem. He likes to half-jokingly say that we Earthlings live in a game-like simulator created by an intelligent lord with a sense of humor. Because he made the gravitational acceleration on Mars and the moon small enough, it is easy to put a rocket into orbit, but the gravitational acceleration on Earth is relatively large, and it takes a lot of trouble to put a rocket into orbit.
Like a climber de-weighting a backpack, Musk is obsessed with de-weighting rockets. Weight reduction has a ripple effect: Taking out a part, using lighter materials, making simpler welds, each reduces a little weight, which in turn reduces the fuel the rocket needs, further reducing the mass the engine has to push. When Musk walks through the SpaceX assembly line, he stops at each station, stares quietly, debates with his team, and removes or streamlines parts. In almost every such contact, he repeatedly emphasized one point: "With fully reusable rockets, mankind has the important conditions to leap from a single-planet civilization to a multi-planet civilization."
In his speech at the 2014 annual dinner held at the century-old Explorers Club in New York City, where Musk was awarded the Presidential Award, he once again shared his view that reusable rockets are critical to the future of human civilization. This time he shared the stage with Bezos, who won the award because his team salvaged the engine of Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 spacecraft. Dinner dishes catered to these adventurous adventurers include scorpions, maggot-covered strawberries, sweet and sour beef whip, lamb's eye martini, and a cooked whole alligator.
When the organizers introduced Musk, they played a video of him successfully launching a rocket. "You are too kind and did not release the videos of the first three test launches," Musk said. "We will have to cut a featurette for the first three test launches in the future." Then he started talking about why he wanted to build a fully reusable rocket. He said: "So that we can build an ecosystem on Mars. Our upcoming launch will be the first time that landing legs are installed on the rocket." Reusable rockets can one day reduce the cost of a single person to Mars to $500,000. Musk acknowledged that even then, most people wouldn't go to Mars, "but I think there are some people in this room who would be willing to go."
Bezos applauded, but at the time, he was quietly launching an attack on Musk. He and Blue Origin applied for a U.S. patent titled "Sea Landing of a Space Launch Vehicle," and received the patent a few weeks after the dinner. The 10-page patent application describes "a method for landing and recovering a certain booster stage and other parts thereof from an offshore platform." Musk looked livid after reading this patent. He said the idea of landing at sea "has been discussed for half a century, in fictional movies, in many proposals, but with so much technology available to us now, it would be crazy to repeat the same old ideas. To patent something that people have been talking about for half a century is ridiculous." The following year, Bezos agreed to revoke the patent after SpaceX sued, but the dispute intensified the rivalry between the two rocket entrepreneurs.
On June 28, 2015, Musk’s 44th birthday, SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 cargo mission, which carried the expectations of too many people. Two minutes after liftoff, a pillar supporting the helium tank of the second-stage rocket fell and exploded with the rocket. After seven consecutive years of successful launches, Falcon 9 failed for the first time.
During this time, Bezos has made some positive developments. In November 2015, he launched a rocket that took 11 minutes to jump up and down 62 miles to the starting altitude of outer space. Guided by a GPS system and grid wings, the rocket returned to Earth and its booster engines reignited, slowing its descent. As the landing legs slowly unfolded, the rocket hovered above the ground, constantly adjusting its position and coordinates, and then landed gently.
Bezos announced the victory during a press conference the next day, saying: "Fully reusable rockets are a game changer for the space industry." He then posted his first tweet: "The rarest beast in the world - a used rocket. The controlled landing process is not easy, but once you master the method, it all looks easy."
Musk was annoyed. He believed that this was just a rocket recovery in the suborbital range and could not be compared with the real achievement of launching a payload into a predetermined orbit in his mind. So he issued a rebuttal on Twitter: "@JeffBezos This is not the 'rarest'. SpaceX's Grasshopper rocket made six suborbital flights three years ago and is still doing it." In fact, the Grasshopper rocket only flew to an altitude of about 3,000 feet, which is 1% of the altitude reached by the Blue Origin rocket. But there is nothing wrong with the achievements Musk said. A rocket can touch the edge of outer space, which may be interesting enough for space travelers. However, to truly complete important tasks such as launching satellites and arriving at the International Space Station, a rocket like Falcon 9 is needed. If it can land and be used twice, it will "instantly kill" Blue Origin's achievements this time.
Musk’s chance came on December 21, 2015, four weeks after Bezos’ rocket completed a suborbital flight. In order to break free from the constraints of gravity, Musk worked tirelessly to redesign the Falcon 9. The new version of the rocket injected more liquid oxygen fuel, and the temperature of the liquid oxygen dropped to minus 350 degrees Fahrenheit, which can greatly increase its material density. Musk, as always, is looking for solutions to provide more power to the rocket without significantly increasing its size or mass.
"Elon has been urging us to continuously lower the fuel temperature, just to increase the rocket's energy supply efficiency little by little." Mark Junkosa said, "This idea is very original, but it really makes everyone miserable." Sometimes Junkosa will refute Musk, Low fuel temperature will bring risks to valves and leaks, but Musk remained the same, saying: "Based on first principles, there is no reason why this should not be successful. Of course, the process is arduous, I know that, but you have to grit your teeth and persevere."
"During the countdown, I was so nervous that I almost peed my pants," Jonkosa said. Suddenly, he noticed a worrying situation in the video between the first and second stages of the rocket, with some droplets emerging. He didn't know if it was liquid nitrogen (which would be no problem), or if it came from ultra-cold liquid oxygen tanks (which might be a problem).
Jonkhosa recalled: "I was scared to death. If I ran the company, I would definitely cancel this launch." "You have to stop it!" Jonkhosa told Musk when the countdown entered the last minute. Musk paused for a few seconds. How risky would it be to have some liquid oxygen between the two stages of the rocket? There is a risk, but it's small. “Don’t worry about it,” he said, “and the launch goes on.” Years later, Jonkosa watched a video of Musk making the decision and said, “I thought he did some quick and complicated calculations to make the decision, but in fact he just shrugged and gave the order. He had an a priori intuition about physics.”
Musk was right, the entire liftoff was flawless. What follows is a 10-minute wait to see if the booster will return and land safely on the landing pad, a mile away from Launch Pad 39A. After the second-stage rocket separated, the booster's thrusters were successfully ignited. The booster turned around and flew towards Cape Canaveral, then slowly descended with the bottom of the booster facing down. Guided by GPS and sensors, and with the help of grid wings, it slowly descends toward the landing site.
Musk rushed out of the control room and ran to the other side of the highway, staring at the black sky, waiting to see the rocket reappear. "Come down, come down slowly." He murmured to himself as he stood by the road with his hands on his hips, and then heard a roar. "Oh, no!" he said, turning around and walking dejectedly back across the road. In fact, the control room erupted in loud cheers. Monitors showed the rocket standing on the landing platform, and the launch announcer's announcement echoed Neil Armstrong's words on the moon: "The Falcon has landed."
It turns out that the loud noise just now was a sonic boom caused by the rocket re-entering the atmosphere. A flight engineer ran out of the control room with the news. She shouted: "The booster is standing on the landing platform!" Musk turned around and walked quickly towards the platform. "What the hell!" he kept saying to himself. "What the hell!" That night, they went to a beachside bar called Fish Lips to party and celebrate. Musk raised a glass of beer and shouted to more than 100 employees and other surprised onlookers: "We just successfully launched the world's largest rocket and landed it successfully!" The crowd chanted "USA, USA," and Musk jumped to his feet and pumped his fist in the air.
"Congratulations to @SpaceX on the successful landing of the Falcon's suborbital booster," Bezos wrote in a tweet. "Welcome to the landing club!" His tweet was an explicit compliment and an implicit irony, classifying SpaceX's landing booster as a "suborbital" level, so that it is at the same level as Blue Origin's successful landing booster.
From a technical point of view, he is right. SpaceX's booster itself did not enter the intended orbit, but only successfully boosted a payload into orbit. But Musk was furious. He believes that the ability to deliver payloads into predetermined orbits has determined that SpaceX and Blue Origin rockets belong to completely different levels.
Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have been entangled since 2013. Their competition includes: renting the famous 39A launch pad at Cape Canaveral (Musk won), being the first to land a rocket that reaches the edge of space smoothly (Bezos won), launching the rocket into a predetermined orbit (Musk won), and sending humans into a predetermined orbit (Musk won).
In April 2021, SpaceX defeated Bezos' Blue Origin and won the contract to send NASA astronauts to the last leg of the moon landing journey. As a result, the battle between the two parties broke out again. Blue Origin appealed NASA's decision but did not win. The company's website displays a picture criticizing the plan, which states in large letters that it is "extremely complex" and "highly risky."
SpaceX responded that Blue Origin "has not produced rockets and spacecraft that can enter the intended orbit." Musk's Twitter followers organized a flash mob mocking Blue Origin, and Musk joined in. "Can't get on (the track) hahaha," he tweeted.
Bezos and Musk are similar in some ways. They both rely on passion, innovation and strong willpower to subvert an industry. They are both rude to employees and often talk about the word "stupid". Anyone who dares to question or oppose them will quickly arouse their anger. Their eyes are focused on drawing up a blueprint for the future, rather than pursuing short-term profits. Someone asked Bezos if he knew how to spell the word "profit". Bezos replied: "p-r-o-p-h-e-t!"
But if you compare the two ways of studying engineering problems, you will find that they are quite different. Bezos is very particular about methods and methods. His motto is "step by step, like a wolf and a tiger." Musk’s nature is to rush forward and push everyone to the limit with an impossible deadline, even if he takes risks. Musk would spend hours giving technical advice during engineering meetings and would issue new orders unexpectedly. Bezos is deeply skeptical of this approach, even dismissive. He said former SpaceX and Tesla employees told him that Musk rarely understood the situation as well as he claimed and that his interventions often were unhelpful and sometimes even harmful.
Musk believes that Bezos is a layman and his failure to focus on engineering issues is one of the reasons why Blue Origin's progress is not as good as SpaceX's. In an interview at the end of 2021, Musk reluctantly praised Bezos for being "talented in engineering," but then added: "But he seems unwilling to expend brainpower to delve into the details of engineering. The devil is hidden in the details."
Now that Musk has sold all his homes and is living in a rental house in Texas, he has begun to criticize Bezos's lavish lifestyle with many mansions. "In some ways, I want to induce him to spend more time with Blue Origin so they can make more progress," Musk said. "He should spend less time in the big tub and more time with Blue Origin."
Both men loved space, and like the railroad tycoons of a century ago, their rivalry helped advance humanity in the field. Although some complain that space has become a place to satisfy the hobby of these billionaire big boys, their vision of completing rocket launches through private companies will bring the United States back to the forefront of space exploration, which has already lagged behind China and even Russia in this regard.
"The Biography of Elon Musk"
[US] Written by Walter Isaacson Translated by Sun Siyuan and Liu Jiaqi
CITIC Publishing Group