Internet billionaires face off in renewed Texas space race

Associated Press

VAN HORN, TEXAS

An isolated edge of vast West Texas is home to a highly secretive part of the 21st-century space race, one of two being directed in the Lone Star State by Internet billionaires whose personalities and corporate strategies seem worlds apart.

The presence of Blue Origin, LLC, the brainchild of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, barely registers in nearby Van Horn, a way station along Interstate 10, a full decade after he began buying land in one of Texas’ largest and most remote counties.

Few visitors are allowed beyond the “No Trespassing” sign and a remote-controlled gate and into the desert and mountain environment reminiscent of the Air Force’s renowned Area 51 in Nevada. The privileged who do get inside decline to describe what they’ve seen, typically citing confidentiality agreements.

At the opposite end — of Texas and the competition — is the highly visible SpaceX venture, led by PayPal co-founder and electric car maker Elon Musk. His company contracts with NASA to resupply the International Space Station and is building a launch site about 600 miles from Van Horn, on the southernmost Texas Gulf coast, with the much-publicized goal of sending humans to Mars.

SpaceX and Blue Origin are among several U.S. companies engaged in the private space business. Both men have seemingly unlimited resources — Bezos’ wealth is estimated at nearly $35 billion, Musk’s at $12 billion — and lofty aspirations: launching a new era of commercial space operations, in part by cutting costs through reusable rockets.

Earlier this month, Bezos announced his company’s new hydrogen rocket engine, designed for suborbital missions, had completed hundreds of tests at the West Texas site, adding, “soon we’ll put it to the ultimate test of flight.” That could come late this year.

Blue Origin’s presence in Van Horn is minimal.

By contrast, SpaceX is frequently in the headlines thanks to its nearly $2 billion federal contract. Attempts to reuse booster rockets have been rocky; it’s failed three times to land them on a platform off the Florida coast.