Bezos sees no threat from Musk-Trump ties in the space race

Jeff Bezos in an interview with Reuters on Sun,day said he does not think SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will use his close ties with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to undercut his space company Blue Origin, adding he feels “very optimistic” about the incoming administration’s space agenda.

“Elon has been very clear that he’s doing this for the public interest and not for his personal gain. And I take him at face value,” said Bezos, founder of Blue Origin, which rivals SpaceX in the space industry.

Bezos is in Cape Canaveral, Florida, for the debut launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn, a 30-story-tall rocket that is expected to chip away at SpaceX’s market dominance and kick-start Blue Origin’s long-delayed entrance into the satellite launch business.

Musk, who spent more than a quarter billion dollars to help elect Trump, has had the president-elect’s ear on space matters and last month said the U.S. should send missions straight to Mars instead of going to the moon first, raising industry concerns of a major shakeup to NASA’s space exploration program.

“My own opinion is that we should do both — we need to go to the moon and we should go to Mars,” Bezos said when asked if he was concerned about changes to NASA’s moon program.

“What we shouldn’t do is start and stop things. We should continue with the lunar program for sure,” Bezos said.

Trump in his second term is expected to make sweeping changes to NASA’s moon program and focus heavily on sending missions to Mars.