Jeff Bezos, owner of aerospace company Blue Origin, expressed optimism Sunday about the incoming Trump administration's space policy and is not concerned about the president-elect's alliance with rival Elon Musk. He emphasized.
“Elon has made it very clear that he's doing this for the public good, not for personal gain, and I take him at face value,” Bezos said. he told Reuters on Sunday. He then added that he was “very optimistic” about President-elect Trump's space policy.
Mr. Bezos and Mr. Musk, owners of SpaceX and Tesla, have clashed repeatedly in public in recent years over their apparently different personalities and political supporters.
Musk's critics and government watchdog groups expressed concern last year that he would use his growing influence under the Trump administration to rein in competitors to his technology ventures, but Musk He said: later suggested He had no intention of exploiting his relationship with the president-elect to advance his competitive position.
The tech billionaire spent more than $250 million to support President Trump's re-election bid, and he also worked with the Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory group aimed at cutting government spending and regulation. He serves as co-leader of DOGE.
Mr. Musk's SpaceX is a leader in the aerospace and rocket industry, hosting nearly 100 launches last year and deploying thousands of Starlink internet satellites across the country.
Bezos' Blue Origin, founded in 2000, lags behind SpaceX when it comes to rocket launches. It has yet to reach orbit or fly a national security mission and is currently in direct competition with SpaceX and United Launch Alliance for Department of Defense contracts worth $5.6 billion over the next five years. I am doing it.
The debut launch of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket Scheduled takeoff It was scheduled for early Monday morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, but an unexplained rocket issue delayed the event. The company did not immediately announce a new release date, saying it needed more time to resolve the issue.
The feud between the two companies reignited last June, when Bezos filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration to limit Starship launches over environmental concerns.
musk at the time called moving It was a “clearly dishonest response” and the company was nicknamed “Sioux Origin” at the time. And in 2021, Bezos sued NASA over SpaceX's lunar lander contract, but ultimately lost.
Bezos was one of several technology leaders to meet with President Trump in recent weeks at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, and his company, Amazon, donated $100 to the president-elect's inaugural fund. Donated $1,000.
He has long faced criticism from Trump and the political right.
Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, which made a name for itself during Trump's first term by aggressively covering the former president, has been regularly scorned by conservative critics.
The Washington Post did not endorse any candidate in the 2024 presidential election at Bezos' direction. This happened even though the newspaper's editorial board had already drafted support for Vice President Harris, raising concerns that the billionaire was trying to appease President Trump.
