Billionaire Space Flight Turns Into Space Fight As Elon Musk, Blue Origin CEO Take Potshots At Richard Branson

Tesla Inc TSLA, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith took digs at Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc SPCE Thursday over his upcoming space flight.

What Happened: Branson is due to board a test flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Unity on July 11 as a private astronaut.

Rival space firm Blue Origin, founded by Amazon.com, Inc AMZN CEO Jeff Bezos, CEO Smith took a potshot at the upcoming space voyage — which was posted on Twitter by  Christian Davenport, a space reporter for the Washington Post.

“We wish him a great and safe flight, but they’re not flying above the Kármán line and it’s a very different experience,” Smith reportedly said.

Musk too made light on Twitter of a meme posted by a Twitter user which made fun of the barbs exchanged by Bezos and Branson, with a Dogecoin DOGE/USD 

But can I pay in Doge?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 2, 2021

On Thursday, shares of Virgin Galactic soared 27.32% to $54.99  in the after-hours after news of Branson’s flight emerged. The shares closed 6.11% lower at $43.19 in the regular session.

Why It Matters: Bezos, is scheduled to travel to Space on July 20 and this has set off a new space race among the billionaires.

See Also: Cramer Gives His Opinion On Virgin Galactic, Zynex And More

The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale — a Switzerland-based global standard-setting and record-keeping organization — places Kármán line at the altitude of 100 KM or 62 miles above Earth’s mean sea level, reported Science, published by American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

There is reportedly no consensus on this definition and other organizations accept different measures.
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Photo by Jarle Naustvik on Flickr