太空競賽出現了階段性贏家，這位贏家就是亞馬遜CEO杰夫?貝佐斯。

11月23日，這名億萬富翁麾下的藍色起源公司（Blue Origin），順利完成了其制造的可重復使用火箭的發射和著陸。該公司一直就堪稱業界“黑馬”。

為了紀念首位進入太空的美國人Alan Shepard，該公司特意將其太空飛船命名為“New Shepard”。當天，太空飛船順利升至62英里（約100千米）的高空后分離為BE-3型火箭和太空艙，隨后降落在藍色起源公司設在德州范霍恩的神秘基地中。

貝佐斯稱，New Shepard本次飛行“非常完美”，而且火箭可以重復利用，有望降低航天成本，這“將改變行業格局”。為了慶祝，貝佐斯還發表了自己的第一篇Twitter消息：“稀有神獸，一枚使用過的火箭。”（rarest of beasts, a used rocket.）

而正是這短短幾十字的一句話，引發了美國科技界兩位當紅億萬富翁的口水戰。

特斯拉CEO埃隆?穆斯克最初先是在Twitter上祝賀了藍色起源公司和貝索斯：“祝賀貝索斯和藍色起源團隊取得垂直發射與降落的成功?！?/p>

但是，他隨后對貝索斯的消息回應稱，“并不相當‘稀有’，”并稱旗下SpaceX在三年前就已利用試驗火箭Grasshopper完成了6次亞軌道飛行。他直言，“杰夫或許不清楚SpaceX的亞軌道垂直起降飛行始于2013年?！?/p>

硅谷風險投資人馬克?安德森也加入討論，但他并未站在任何一邊。他開玩笑說，“區域人士加入了Twitter，來展示他的火箭。@杰夫?貝索斯?！?/p>

顧問公司Teal Group太空研究總監馬克?卡普雷斯也表示，“馬斯克第一次真正感到了競爭壓力。貝索斯早已制定了發展軌道工具的計劃。如果他能夠讓自己的技術變得更完美，就能夠同馬斯克一較高下。”

有意思的是，馬斯克表達醋意之后，貝佐斯并未在Twitter上進行互動回應。

貝索斯與穆斯克的口水之爭表明，私人太空領域正引來新的發展力量。

事實上，穆斯克旗下SpaceX也已制造出可重復使用太空船獵鷹9號，但尚未實現安全著陸。今年以來，SpaceX的多次發射都以失敗告終。在最近的一次發射中，火箭升空不久后就發生了爆炸。穆斯克稱，這次事故“是個重大挫折。”今年早些時候，SpaceX的另一枚火箭在海上浮動平臺成功著陸，但隨即傾倒。不過，穆斯克在推特上發文稱，SpaceX已成功嘗試在短程近地試飛中回收火箭。

也許直接比較這兩種飛船并不是很公平?？萍夹侣劸W站Engadget指出，SpaceX的火箭以進入衛星軌道為目標，飛行速度達到10馬赫；New Shepard僅達到次軌道高度，速度也只有3.7馬赫。速度和高度的差別讓SpaceX的工作變得難得多。

正如穆斯克所言，“不過區分太空和軌道的區別同等重要，它凸顯了目前太空企業在技術上的差距。”

而且，私人太空領域也并非第一次迎來新生力量。和藍色起源開發可用于商業太空旅行的太空船一樣，英國億萬富翁理查德?布蘭森的維珍銀河也有類似的目標，但是，該公司今年飛船墜毀造成了試飛員喪生，這讓維珍銀河備受打擊。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

A comparison between the two vehicles is not exactly fair though.

This space race has a victor for now.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos just scored a major win in the current space race.

Blue Origin, the billionaire’s dark-horse rocket company, successfully launched and landed its reusable rocket on Monday.

The company’s New Shepard space vehicle (named in honor of the first American in space, Alan Shepard) soared to a height of 62 miles, separated into its component parts (a BE-3 rocket and crew capsule), and then touched down amid the desert landscape of its secretive facility in Van Horn, Texas.

Bezos said the rocket “flew a flawless mission” and that its reusability, which promises to lessen the cost of spaceflight, “is a game changer.” The chief exec posted his first tweet to inaugurate the event.

SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has yet to safely stick the landing for its reusable Falcon 9 spacecraft during operational runs. The company has succeeded, however, in recovering boosters for shorter, closer-to-Earth test flights, as Musk pointed out on Twitter.

A comparison between the two vehicles is not exactly fair though. Whereas Musk’s rocket shoots for an orbital altitude and travels at speeds around Mach 10, Bezos’s rocket reaches suborbital heights at Mach 3.7 velocity, notes the tech news site Engadget. The difference in momentum and elevation makes SpaceX’s task much more difficult.

A number of Musk’s missions have ended poorly this year. A recent SpaceX launch ended in disaster soon after takeoff when one of the company’s rocket exploded mid-flight, an incident that Musk described as “definitely a setback.” Earlier this year, another SpaceX rocket tipped over shortly after touching down on an ocean barge.

Despite their rivalry, Musk congratulated Bezos’s team on Twitter…

… while making sure to note that the two company’s distinct missions are not exactly comparable.

The team at Blue Origin seeks to develop spacecraft for commercial space tourism. Another spaceflight company with similar designs—Virgin Galactic, owned by British billionaire Richard Branson—suffered a blow when one of its test pilots died in a crash this year.