Musk fires up SpaceX, Bezos pushes Blue Origin as US billionaires race China to moon

WASHINGTON: The space race between U.S. billionaires is heating up, with Elon Musk’s SpaceX planning to build a lunar base and Jeff Bezos pushing Blue Origin’s ambitions as both companies aim to return humans to the moon ahead of a planned mission by China in 2030.

With a planned IPO this year, SpaceX CEO Musk has said in recent podcast interviews and company meetings that he wants to build “Moonbase Alpha” and put a satellite-slinging launch device on the lunar surface. The lunar base would help build up his envisioned AI-computing network of up to one million satellites.