Tesla CEO and Amazon founder vie for dominance of satellite launch market and could influence Nasa plans to return to Moon

Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000, waved off an attempt to launch its first orbital rocket. Blue Origin said engineers worked to troubleshoot an issue with the rocket but could not resolve the problem in time.

Elon Musk's Space X has launched a rocket carrying two lunar landers, which took off into space this morning (15 January). Blue Ghost and Resilience, built by private companies in the US and Japan, left Earth aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA ’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:11 a.m. ET (6:11 GMT).

In recent years, Space X has been a clear winner in space tech, even managing to catch a booster for the most powerful rocket ever built on a pair of ‘chopsticks’ last year, and stepping in to rescue two astronauts still stranded in space after the Boeing Starliner which carried them there was deemed not safe enough to take them home.

While Jeff Bezos has spent $14 billion to achieve his first space launch, his billionaire rival has built a thriving business, mostly with other people’s money.

It took a while, but investors and space enthusiasts are finally getting the drama they have been looking for: David versus Goliath, but in space. SpaceX, owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is set to test its huge Starship launch vehicle on Thursday afternoon.