Elon Musk is mocking Jeff Bezos’ decision to step down as Amazon’s CEO, joking that he did so to take up a career launching legal threats to stymie SpaceX.
Musk hurled the insult after Amazon filed a complaint with the FCC to stop a SpaceX proposal concerning Starlink, the company’s satellite broadband system.
Earlier this month, Bezos’ Blue Origin space company also sued to stop NASA from awarding a lunar lander contract to SpaceX. The legal tactics prompted Musk to respond on Thursday night through his Twitter account. “Turns out Besos [sic] retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX," he wrote.
The insult is one of several Musk has lobbed at Bezos over the years amid their heated rivalry in the aerospace industry. In April, Musk threw a mildly lewd jab at Bezos during Blue Origin’s initial attempt to protest NASA’s lunar lander contract to SpaceX.
“Can’t get it up (to orbit),” Musk said in a tweet.
In 2019, Musk also threw shade at Amazon for preparing its own satellite internet system to compete with Starlink by calling Bezos a copycat.
Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. However, the company told PCMag it’s not protesting SpaceX’s overall plan for a second-generation Starlink network. Instead, Amazon is opposed to a SpaceX amendment that seeks FCC clearance for two satellite configurations for the upcoming network, rather than one.
“SpaceX's novel approach of applying for two mutually exclusive configurations is at odds with both the Commission’s rules and public policy and we urge the Commission to dismiss this amendment,” Amazon wrote in a protest letter to the FCC. “The Commission’s rules require that SpaceX settle the details of its proposed amendment before filing its application—not after.”