Bezos and Musk exchange congratulations after rocket launch failures

SpaceX’s Starship superheavy rocket previously exploded during a test launch eight minutes after liftoff. At the same time, the second stage of the rocket, the Super Heavy booster, successfully returned to the launch pad.

Commenting on the incident, Bezos wrote to Musk on the social network X: “Congratulations to you and the entire SpaceX team for the perfect capture of the booster! “It’s really impressive.”

Not long ago, Bezos’ Blue Origin successfully launched the New Glenn rocket for the first time from the US Space Force base in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket’s upper stage successfully entered orbit, but the booster stage disintegrated while attempting to land on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

Musk congratulated his competitor on his X page, writing: “Jeff Bezos and the Blue Origin team are great!”

The billionaire later posted a clip from the 2008 comedy Step Brothers, in which the characters exclaim, “We just became best friends!” Musk added that this scene perfectly characterizes the relationship between him and Bezos.

According to Forbes, relations between Musk and Bezos were not always warm. The owner of SpaceX previously accused Blue Origin of stealing ideas and in 2021 joked that he would send Bezos a silver medal after overtaking him as the world’s richest person.

In December, Musk and Bezos met at the Mar-a-Lago residence of US President-elect Donald Trump. They are expected to attend Trump’s inauguration on January 20.