MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty/Axel Springer
- Elon Musk commented "haha" on a meme about Jeff Bezos' upcoming space flight.
- The meme mocked Bezos' flight because it will be sub-orbital – it will only touch the edge of space.
- Musk has had a long-running rivalry with Bezos as the pair both own space exploration companies.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Elon Musk enjoyed a meme on Saturday poking fun at Jeff Bezos' upcoming flight to the edge of space.
Musk commented "haha" under a meme posted on Twitter about Bezos' flight. The meme shows Bezos talking to Musk about his flight, but with their faces superimposed onto Anakin Skywalker and Padme from "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack Of The Clones" – a popular meme format.
-Charly (@Charly923407591) July 17, 2021
The meme makes fun of the fact Jeff Bezos' flight will be sub-orbital, meaning it will only just touch the edge of space before coming back down to Earth, rather than going into orbit.
Bezos is scheduled to fly onboard New Shepard, a spacecraft made by his company Blue Origin, on July 20.
Bezos' flight is slated to fly just above the Kármán line, an imaginary line 62 miles above sea-level, which some use to define the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and space.
Bezos' flight should take roughly 11 minutes, during which Bezos and the other passengers will experience approximately three minutes of weightlessness. Travelling with Bezos will be his brother Mark Bezos, 82-year-old aviator Wally Funk, and 18-year-old physics student Oliver Daeman.
Elon Musk has had a long-running rivalry with Bezos, as both billionaires own space exploration companies. Musk's company SpaceX has a stated goal of one day transporting human beings to Mars, and Musk has said he wants to help colonise the red planet.
Musk has previously called Bezos' Blue Origin a "copycat," and made fun of the company's proposed lunar lander Blue Moon comparing it to "blue balls."
Recently, the two companies have clashed over a contract awarded to SpaceX by NASA in April, with Blue Origin lobbying Washington to allow NASA to give out more money to another company.