Richard Branson’s rocket company tries (and fails) to out-do Elon Musk on Instagram following Space X’s historic rocket landing
The wealthy businessmen were already head-to-head over space travel...and now they're battling for social media status
ELON Musk, the billionaire space entrepreneur (and Hollywood actress Amber Heard's new squeeze) is earning some serious social media credit.
He took to Instagram and Twitter to show off about his space company's top-secret US military launch which returned to ground on Monday.
Sharing snaps and videos of his space rocket nailing the landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, he garnered hundreds of thousands of likes and shares.
But spare a thought for former space heavyweight Richard Branson, whose company Virgin Galactic tried to get in on the fun.
Just hours after Musk posted clips - some of which have been viewed 523,000 times - Virgin Galactic tried to muscle in.
Keen not to be forgotten, it posted a grainy image of one of its human spaceflight vehicles, called the VSS Unity, after a re-entry test in Mojave, the US.
It wrote: "Here’s another image from today’s successful test flight! In this shot, VSS Unity flies in the feather configuration, testing out the vehicle’s re-entry system."
Virgin Galactic is testing how to launch its human spaceship from the wing of a carrier aircraft, rather than from a launch pad.
It was once a front runner for commercial space travel.
The South African has secured contracts to provide space travel on his re-usable rockets, a cheaper alternative to traditional spaceflight.
Monday's launch was part of one of these contracts, and was reported to have a top secret US military stash on-board - although nobody knows what it was.
And Musk pips Branson to the post when it comes to likes, thanks to his social media savvy and celebrity status.
He's become something of a celebrity striking up a romance with Johnny Depp's soon-to-be ex wife Amber Heard.
What do we know about Space X?
Space X was founded by Elon Musk, who famously founed luxury electric carmaker Tesla.
His commercial space company makes reusable rockets (the Falcon 9 and the Dragon) which are designed to transport satellites and a human spaceship into space.
It's the first commercial company to visit the International Space Station.
SpaceX is currently contracted to perform an average of four Dragon 2 missions to the ISS per year, three carrying cargo and one carrying crew.
Its first launch was back in 2010.
Founder Elon Musk claims said that Space X is planing to fly two space tourists to the moon and back next year.
Musk, who says he wants to put a human colony on Mars by 2030, has been spotted canoodling with the Aquaman star recently and sparked an Instagram frenzy after sharing a snap from a romantic dinner.
But Branson's brand is determined to be number one.
It's Instagram bio reads: "The world's first commercial spaceline. We help more astronauts, more experiments, and more satellites explore space."
That said, if it's good enough for Stephen Hawking, who recently said he'd take a spin on Branson's rocket - then it's good enough for us.
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