#Elon Musk mocks Jeff Bezos amid legal battle over space plans

The two wealthiest men in the world won’t stop fighting over space. 

Elon Musk mocked Jeff Bezos on Twitter Friday, accusing him of having stepped down as Amazon CEO in order to spend his time filing lawsuits against Musk’s company SpaceX. 

The jab comes after Bezos’ Blue Origin space firm sued NASA earlier this month over the agency’s decision to give a $2.9 billion moon lander contract to SpaceX. 

Amazon also filed a complaint against SpaceX with the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday, urging the regulator to reject the company’s plan to launch more satellites as part of its satellite internet business. 

Musk, who is the second wealthiest man in the world after Bezos, is fed up with the rival rocketeer’s legal moves. 

“Turns out Besos retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX…” Musk wrote on Twitter Friday — misspelling Bezos’ name, instead writing the Spanish word for “kisses.”

The 50-year-old Musk made the comments in a reply to a Tweet from a reporter who works for the Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos.

Bezos stepped down as Amazon CEO in July, passing the reins to trusted lieutenant Andy Jassy and blasting himself into space on a Blue Origin rocket.

SpaceX and Blue Origin did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Musk and Bezos, who Forbes estimates are worth $193 billion and $186 billion, respectively, have a long history of squabbling over their galactic ambitions. 

The duo once met over dinner in 2004 to talk about space travel, journalist Christian Davenport wrote in a book about the duo.  

“We talked about rocket architectures,” Musk said about the dinner. “I actually did my best to give good advice, which he largely ignored.”  

In 2013, competition between the two billionaires spilled into public view when they squabbled over access to a NASA launchpad and shortly afterward battled over rocket-landing patents. 

In 2015, Musk dissed Bezos on Twitter over other rocket landing technology, accusing Blue Origin of being years behind SpaceX. 

Earlier this year, Musk made fun of a Washington Post reporter writing a story about him, replying to a request for comment on a story with, “Give my regards to your puppet master.”  

For Bezos’ part, he has mocked plans to colonize Mars, a key SpaceX ambition. 

“My friends who want to move to Mars, I say, do me a favor and go live on the top of Mount Everest for a year first, and see if you like it, because it’s a garden paradise compared to Mars,” Bezos told SpaceNews in 2019.