As tech billionaires do, putting money into space exploration is like a thing. But when you accomplish an amazing feat and want to shout about it on Twitter, be careful of the wording you use as they can be a little touchy – just as Elon Musk showed us yesterday.

It all began when Jeff Bezos of Amazon tweeted his first tweet ever:

Attached to it was a video (above) of the launch of New Shepherd, a space vehicle created by Jeff’s rocket company, Blue Origin. It’s an important milestone as the company flew a reusable rocket to space – and back – for the first time.

Although Elon was quick to congratulate Jeff in response to his tweet, he wouldn’t let up:

However, it seems that Jeff isn’t as adept to Twitter as Musk as there is yet to be a response on his account. Or maybe he’s so adept, he knows to stay away. Hmmmm.

Instead, Blue Origin went old school and released a statement.

SpaceX is only trying to recover their first stage booster, which is of course suborbital. The SpaceX first stage does an in-space deceleration burn to make their re-entry more benign. If anything, the Blue Origin booster may be the one that flies through the harsher re-entry environment. Finally, the hardest part is probably the final landing segment which is the same for both boosters.

Basically, Blue Origin has accomplished something a bit more difficult to undertake than SpaceX.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9:

Blue Origin’s New Shepard:

Business Insider was kind enough to break down what exactly Blue Origin is up to, for after all, it is rocket science:

First, the critical difference between SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets and Blue Origin’s New Shepard rockets: how high they can carry a payload:

• Falcon 9 rockets can transport satellites to more than 20,000 miles above Earth’s surface.
• New Shepard can take a crew capsule to 62 miles above Earth’s surface, a region known as suborbital space.
• New Shepard generates 10% the power that Falcon 9 does because it doesn’t fly as high.

The reason for this difference is SpaceX is interested in sending payloads into orbit around the Earth, while Blue Origin is interested in sending humans to suborbital space, which doesn’t include orbiting the Earth.

The Falcon 9 can attain greater heights because it includes two parts, or stages, called the first and second stage. Right now, only the first stage, the largest and more expensive piece, is designed for reuse.

The first stage of Falcon 9 goes only as far as suborbital space before detaching from the second stage. That’s also how high New Shepard goes.

But unlike New Shepard, which is traveling at 2,800 mph when it hits 62 miles, the first stage Falcon 9 is trucking along at 7,600 mph.

Therefore, Falcon 9 has to slow down to prep for reentry and landing. Judging from Blue Origin’s statement, New Shepeard does not because it’s traveling at close to 1/3 the speed:

“SpaceX is only trying to recover their first stage booster, which is of course suborbital. The SpaceX first stage does an in-space deceleration burn to make their re-entry more benign.

“If anything, the Blue Origin booster may be the one that flies through the harsher re-entry environment.”

It’s hard to test whether this claim is true. But if New Shepard booster is falling faster at reentry, then it might, indeed, experience a harsher reentry.

Why you would deliberately expose your booster to a harsher environment is anyone’s guess.

Pieczonka said the landing process is the same for both boosters:

“Finally, the hardest part is probably the final landing segment which is the same for both boosters.”

Got it? Cool.

[source: businessinsider&sky]