'Friendly exchange': Elon Musk congratulates Jeff Bezos on Blue Origin rocket launch

Elon Musk has congratulated Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for the successful launch of Blue Origin's New Glen rocket to the orbit.

Taking to his X account, Musk commented under a post by Blue Origin that read, "Second stage engine cutoff confirmed. New Glenn’s second stage and payload are now in orbit. Another burn coming up..."

"Congratulations on reaching orbit on the first attempt! @JeffBezos", Musk commented.

In a response to Musk, Bezos replied with "Thank you!🙏"

Musk's response comes just after a SpaceX Starship prototype failed in space minutes after launching from its rocket facilities in Texas, according to the company's live stream of the test mission.

The Starship upper stage had multiple upgrades and stood two meters (6.56 feet) taller than previous version. Shortly after reaching space, it was poised to deploy mock satellites for the first time.

Bezos had founded Blue Origin, the space technology company, in the year 2000.

After the interaction between the two, X users have reacted to it, many pointing out at it as a 'friendly exchange'.

"I feel like this is the brother to brother back handed compliment he didn’t know he needed," a user commented.

Another user commented, "I don't know what pleases me the most between this progression towards space exploration and this friendly exchange."

"This is awesome! SpaceX and Blue Origin should team up in the future for a mission to Mars!" commented a third.

Google CEO praises Blue Origin

Besides Musk, another industry leader who has appreciated Blue Origin's efforts is Google CEO Sundar Pichal. He replied to Bezos' post on the successful launch with: "Inspiring! Congrats on the incredible progress 👏👏"

(With Reuters inputs)