Nasa Space Shuttle Launch Pad Battled Over By Billionaires Elon Musk And Jeff Bezos

The Billionaire Battle For Nasa's Shuttle Launchpad

If you were a billionaire with money to burn what would you buy?

How about Nasa's space shuttle launchpad?

Two billionaires both with a healthy interest in the galactic are battling over just that.

The ill-fated Columbia on the launchpad

Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon and backer of Blue Origin) and Elon Musk (owner of Space X) both want Launch Complex 39A from which to base their commercial space missions, reports CNBC.

The iconic launch site at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida saw the first (and last) of Nasa's now retired space shuttle fleet lift off.

The bidding is being kept under wraps but will undoubtedly be quite a sum.

Both companies are among a number of private companies looking to take over the mantle of space exploration as governments - particularly the US and Nasa - reduce funding.

Space X are by far the most high profile of the two companies and they already own two other launch sites.

Other notable achievements include their Grasshopper reusable rocket and their impressive Falcon 9.

The company is also developing the Falcon Heavy launch system which will be the most powerful rocket in the world and has the potential to take humans to Mars.

They are competing with Boeing and Sierra Nevada for a lucrative Nasa contract to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Musk also has a few other projects in the pipeline including his rather mysterious Hyperloop Transit System.

Blue Origin are much more low key but last year announced their imaginatively titled 'Space Vehicle' had wind tunnel tests.

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