If lobbying & lawyers could get you to orbit, Bezos would be on Pluto: Elon Musk

Elon Musk has criticised Jeff Bezos, a wealthy competitor, for allegedly focusing on government lobbying rather than rocket development.

In recent years, the two have exchanged places as the world's wealthiest people, leveraging their huge fortunes to support their private space enterprises. 

Nasa awarded Musk's SpaceX a lucrative contract to construct its Starship spaceship for the 2024 Artemis mission, which seeks to return humans to the Moon. 

On August 12, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sneered and mocked Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, saying the former would be on Pluto by no means if lobbying and lawyers could get you to space.

Musk slammed his billionaire space competitor in the latest salvo in a verbal brawl.

NASA just pushed the two into overdrive by awarding SpaceX a lunar lander contract over Bezos' space company. 

Elon Musk's SpaceX has been awarded a lucrative contract to construct a version of its Starship rocket that would transport people to the lunar surface in 2024.

Blue Origin had hoped that NASA would pay two companies to construct alternate landers, but budget constraints forced NASA to choose just SpaceX, forcing the company to submit a 50-page protest with the Government Accountability Office. 

(With inputs from agencies)