Jeff Bezos recently shared a post on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) with a dramatic black-and-white close-up of a tortoise. While the Amazon founder did not caption the post, it is being seen as a reminder to the public about his space company, Blue Origin’s plan for the Moon. Garnered over 5.4 million views so far, Jeff Bezos’ post has a rather usual critic – Elon Musk. The tech billionaire who owns SpaceX – a rival to Blue Origin replied to Jeff Bezos’ post writing “Turtle heading?” – a slang interpretation of “turtling” as hesitant defecation. In another post, he wrote: “When it’s coming out slowly, but ferociously”. When a user said that Jeff Bezos’ image-only post refers to the “tale of the Tortoise and the Hare” where SpaceX is the hare and Blue Origin is the tortoise. Interestingly, the tortoise has also featured on the company’s crest and Blue Origin space vehicles. In the post, the user Canraptor @canraptor_ further said that Bezos’ post implies that Blue Origin “will beat SpaceX to The Moon”, Elon Musk responded:“They might land something on the Moon before SpaceX and that’s fine by me. I will be one of the first to congratulate them. However, what really matters for the future is being able to land millions of tons of equipment and people to build a self-growing city on the Moon. In this respect, perhaps we are (will) be more the tortoise than the hare for now.”

Elon Musk’s SpaceX delays mars mission

SpaceX and Blue Origin lead the charge in commercial space exploration. While Musk’s SpaceX has dominated the space industry for nearly two decades, Bezos is making bold moves to challenge this dominance through Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket and Amazon’s Project Kuiper.Recently, SpaceX announced that it is shifting its near-term focus away from Mars to prioritise building a self-sustaining city on the Moon. The update was shared by Musk in an X post citing faster timelines and easier launch opportunities. Sharing the post, Elon Musk said that a Moon city could be achieved in less than 10 years, while building a city on Mars would take more than two decades. While the Moon is now the top priority, Musk said SpaceX has not abandoned its Mars plans. “The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars,” Musk wrote on X.Blue Origin also announced its Moon plans last year. The company said it’s willing to “move heaven and Earth” to get NASA to the lunar surface before the Chinese. “We just want to help the US get to the Moon,” CEO Dave Limp said in 2025.