Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have had their eyes in the skies for some time with their respected companies, SpaceX and Blue Origin but...

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have had their eyes in the skies for some time with their respected companies, SpaceX and Blue Origin but now it appears they have shifted their sights on ground targets as well.

The pair of rocket-building billionaires are now entering the military-industrial market and will now start bidding on contracts to build weaponry for the U.S.

Musk currently holds the advantage, having earned the Pentagon’s business with SpaceX. Needless to say, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman were not too happy about having to lower bidding costs to compete.

Now, Bezos’ Blue Origin has entered the ring, bringing a Silicon Valley approach to the business, and despite plenty of options, the US Air Force has decided to pick only two companies to send their hardware into space.

According to MSN.com, the USAF is planning on sending 25 satellites into space between 2020 and 2024, the United Launch Alliance, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX and Blue Origin have all lined up to compete for the two slots.

As the United States seeks to remain the point man in the future of space travel, the competition stakes are higher than ever before.

With the introduction of a US Space Force, the military has begun to feel the effects of not having their own astronaut carrier since 2011, when the Space Shuttle program was formally retired. While new designs have been proposed, there is very little on the table right now to bring forward.

Interestingly enough, Blue Origin is building the main engines for ULA’s new Vulcan rocket, and Northrop Grumman will build the solid-rocket boosters that give the rocket extra power. It is unknown whether or not the interconnected nature of the Vulcan platform will influence the decision on which company to pick.

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