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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
As Elon Musk once joked, "Jeff who?"
Musk developed a computer game in his teens and got a bit of a payday, started other computer-era businesses, eventually built PayPal, sold it for a big pile of doubloons, wound up involved in Tesla (he isn't the founder), founded SpaceX and has succeeded wildly. He has some kind of engineering and science background, but really is just a polymathic autodidact.
By contrast, Jeff Bezos became a billionaire running an online garage sale, while losing others' money for a decade or so until Amazon reached profitability. Clearly he's much more risk-averse than Elon Musk, and not really any more qualified to build a space services company than anyone else who grew up reading (or selling) sci fi and comic books.
Blue Origin's thoroughly tested New Shepard should have been an operational system at least a year ago, probably longer than that. The company has yet to orbit anything. The New Glenn is purported to have much larger payload capacity, but has never seen the light of day AFAIK, and as noted in the video, completions of its engines were heavily dependent on NASA contracts. I suspect the two engines they manage to complete by the end of this year will wind up heading for ULA, with which Blue Origin has an engine contract.
Meme alert: fish or cut bait.
SpaceX sent its first cargo dragon spacecraft to dock with the ISS in May of 2012, and in May of 2020 the next version of the craft sent a human crew to orbit and the ISS. The Falcon 9 booster has been throwing cargo to orbit and beyond (the Falcon Heavy variant sent a Tesla Roadster into solar orbit on February 2018), with 89 successful propulsive landings (out of 100 attempts, all these figures are per Wikipedia), and 28 recovered boosters have been reflown at least once.

7 posted on 08/24/2021 8:26:11 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Elon is a visionary.

Bezos is a nerd with money.....................


9 posted on 08/24/2021 8:31:06 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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