Expert Compares SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin Space Race to the Tortoise and the Hare
Brad Stone, author of "Amazon Unbound", compares SpaceX and Blue Origin using the tortoise-and-hare metaphor, with Blue Origin taking a slower, deliberate approach while SpaceX accelerated through venture capital and government contracts. He says Bezos has accelerated Blue Origin’s timetable and ambitions in response to SpaceX’s progress and government-backed launches.
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Key takeaways
Blue Origin has pursued a step-by-step strategy toward orbit and moon missions, starting with suborbital tourism, while SpaceX moved faster using venture capital and government contracts.
Bezos funds Blue Origin at approximately one billion dollars per year from Amazon stock while SpaceX receives government launch contracts.
Brad Stone characterizes the companies' strategies as tortoise versus hare, with Blue Origin recently accelerating its timeline and ambitions in response to SpaceX's trajectory.
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Brad Stone, the author of “Amazon Unbound“, compares Elon Musk’s SpaceX to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin — referring to them as the tortoise and the hare. But what else separates the two intergalactic competitors? Who will eventually win the space race? Watch below for more.
Host: It’s hard to believe that Blue Origin is actually more than 20 years old and now they’re just getting to their first human launch, but how is Blue Origin different from SpaceX? And how is Elon Musk different from Jeff Bezos?
Stone: It’s incredible. In the empire of accomplishment, Blue Origin for Jeff Bezos is kind of, you know, the tarnished jewel, at least right now.
Host: The ugly stepchild?
Stone: Or let me put it. Let me use the word, the metaphor they use. It’s the tortoise and not the hare. He always wanted to go slow. He wanted to constrain the investment. He wanted to keep the team small, and he wanted to move step by step. And so suborbital or the edge of space and bringing tourists. There was going to be the first step. And then they would get to orbit and then they would go to the moon. And what happened was the hare came along. Elon comes along, finances it with venture capital and then government contracts and gets all the glory. And they do quite well. And I think Bezos has a fair amount of I don’t know if jealousy is the right word, but curiosity that here Elon is getting paid by the government to launch and he is still funding Blue Origin to the tune of a billion in Amazon stock every year. And so we’ve seen Bezos accelerate blue origin’s timetable, its ambitions, its timeline, and see it a little bit of dysfunction over the past few years. And so far, there hasn’t been a lot to show for it.
*Bloomberg contributed to this content
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