Musk and Bezos must team up to save the space program — and humanity

During a recent podcast interview of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, host Lex Fridman volunteered that Bezos and SpaceX founder Elon Musk should spend time together and forge a “friendship that would inspire the entirety of humanity.”

As our nation and the world are going more dangerously sideways by the day, I strongly second that motion.

The Amazon multibillionaire responded, in part: “I agree with you and I think with a lot of these endeavors we’re very like-minded … I’m not saying we’re identical, but we’re very like-minded so I love that idea.”

But … will Elon Musk?

For the sake of us all, he should.

Over the last few years, Musk has taken some playful but pointed jabs at his fellow private space competitor. Bezos is the founder not only of Amazon but of Blue Origin, the private space launch company which has trailed SpaceX when it comes to success in suborbital, orbital and manned missions.

While Blue Origin may be lagging behind SpaceX when it comes to some important milestones, it is still an important company with massive potential. And therein lies the point of this exercise. For the sake of our massively underperforming, obscenely overpriced and now politically driven U.S. space program — and the welfare of humanity itself — Musk should grasp the olive branch being extended by Bezos with both hands and figure out a way for the two men to team as one regarding their shared passion for space exploration.

I say that as someone who not only shares their passion for space exploration but who worked on space-related issues at the Pentagon, was a consultant to NASA and the space shuttle team, and wrote two books and tens of articles on the subject. More than that, I say it as someone who greatly fears that the China — with its entirely military-controlled space program — is on the cusp of permanently claiming the high ground in space. Including the surface of the Moon. 

During that podcast interview, Bezos was sincerely magnanimous when it came to complimenting Musk regarding his leadership of Tesla and SpaceX. Said Bezos, in part: “There’s no way you can have Tesla and SpaceX without being a capable leader. It’s impossible.”

Should Musk warm to the idea of working with Bezos, then a logical joint project for both men to consider would be not only ensuring that the United States is once again — as President John F. Kennedy declared in 1962 — “the world’s leading spacefaring nation,” but that a segment of humanity is permanently moved off our planet, which increasingly faces the combined “world-killing” threats of nuclear war, laboratory-created viruses and asteroid strikes.

Musk should reciprocate the shout-out from Bezos by acknowledging that the Amazon founder is in fact a high-intellect, incredibly accomplished entrepreneur who brings some very valuable life experiences to the table. 

To be sure, both men find themselves on opposite ends of some of the partisan and ideological issues that divide so many in the world today. But that is precisely the point. Both need to rise above those petty differences for the betterment of us all. 

While many believe that Musk has a more commonsense pragmatic voice regarding some of the problems plaguing us all, Bezos’s beliefs — seemingly more left-leaning on some of these issues — are no less important. In fact, they could prove to be critical when it comes to implementing real-world solutions.

In a world of 8 billion-plus people, there are but a handful of human beings with the platforms, finances and intellect to literally help save humanity. Bezos and Musk are at the top of that very short list.

Worldwide, government after government is failing its people. While Musk acknowledges that reality, Bezos can also surely see it.

I have long stressed — as one who grew up in abject poverty and was homeless often as a child — that issues such as world hunger and poverty cannot be solved in a “macro” sense, but each can be positively impacted on a “micro” level.

On that same “micro” level, Musk and Bezos have the means, the talent, the intellect and the collective bandwidth to not only counter what China is doing in space, but, in the process, get a representation of humanity permanently off the planet.

Bezos is correct about him and Musk being “like minded,” most especially when it comes to their shared passion for space exploration. Knowing that, they should team up before the window to do so closes.

The ball is now in Musk’s court. 

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.