NEW YORK CITY – SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell knocked competitor Blue Origin in candid comments on Friday, giving her take on why Elon Musk's rockets have launched hundreds of spacecraft while Jeff Bezos' has not.

"They're two years older than us, and they have yet to reach orbit," Shotwell said during the Baron Fund's annual investment conference at the Metropolitan Opera House. "They have a billion dollars of free money every year from [Bezos]."

Billionaire investor Ron Baron asked Shotwell why Blue Origin, which is owned and funded almost entirely by the Amazon founder, hadn't accomplished what SpaceX has. Baron's mutual fund owns about $150 million in SpaceX shares and manages over $30 billion in total assets.

Bezos and Musk both founded their respective companies in the early 2000s to explore space and push the limits of rocketry. SpaceX has sent three different rocket designs to orbit, each multiple times, and is building a fourth. Blue Origin, on the other hand, has only flown suborbital rocket flights of at altitudes of a few hundred thousand feet. It's in the early stages of assembling its first rocket capable of reaching orbit.

Baron pointed out that Bezos, as the world's wealthiest man, has more than enough money, asking Shotwell, "So why hasn't he done this?"

"I think engineers think better when they're pushed hardest to do great things in a very short period of time, with very few resources. Not when you have twenty years," Shotwell said. "I don't think there's a motivation or a drive there."

Both ventures have remained private — one of the factors Shotwell credits for SpaceX's success. But she believes Blue Origin has not taken on nearly as much risk.

"They've got a ton of money, and they're not doing a lot," Shotwell said.

Blue Origin declined CNBC's request for comment.

Shotwell began the interview with Baron by saying she intended to "be a little bit careful" when talking about competitors. Still, the conversation included her views of Bezos' other company Amazon, in addition to Blue Origin. Like SpaceX, Amazon is working on an satellite internet constellation called Project Kuiper.

The leader of Bezos' program used to be the vice president of Starlink, until Musk fired him in June 2018. SpaceX launched its first 60 Starlink satellites in May, while Project Kuiper's plan was only unveiled last year.

"He's years behind" in the internet satellite race, Shotwell said of Bezos.

SpaceX is using its own Falcon 9 rockets to launch its satellites, a tactic Bezos may copy by having Blue Origin launch Project Kuiper satellites. But, for the most part, SpaceX has a key advantage in the satellite internet race.

"Everyone else is buying much more expensive launch than we are, and launch is substantial cost to constellations," Shotwell said.