Jeff Bezos achieved two technological milestones in barely 24 hours.
His Twitter debut quickly landed him in an online spat with another billionaire with space ambitions: Elon Musk, whose Space Exploration Technologies Corp. wants to bring back Falcon 9 rockets to upright touchdowns after hoisting commercial payloads to orbit.
"Not quite 'rarest,' " Musk replied via Twitter, citing SpaceX's completion of six suborbital flights by its experimental Grasshopper rocket three years ago.
Blue Origin's craft took off Monday from the company's west Texas launch site, reached an altitude of 329,839 feet , deployed a capsule and then landed vertically atop a pillar of flame from its engine.
Musk, 44, initially offered kudos to Blue Origin and Bezos in a tweet, writing , "Congrats to Jeff Bezos and the BO team for achieving" vertical takeoff and landing.