The story of the tortoise and the hare is one of the most widely told fables across cultures. Parents, teachers, and elders have long used it to explain how success can come not from speed alone, but from patience, discipline, and persistence. The lesson is applied everywhere, from preparing for exams and surviving a competitive job market to building a career or mastering a skill. Its moral is simple and enduring: slow and steady wins the race. In an unexpected twist, that centuries-old story has now found relevance in the rivalry between the world’s richest space entrepreneurs, where the goal is no longer a finish line, but the Moon itself.What was once a classroom parable has become a metaphor for a modern space race between two billionaires with sharply different philosophies about how humanity should build permanent colonies beyond Earth.
How the tortoise-and-hare metaphor entered the Moon race
The contrast between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos has long been a topic of debate in the space industry. Musk is known for speed, rapid experimentation, and public acceptance of failure. Bezos, by contrast, has built his space ambitions around patience, careful testing, and incremental progress.That contrast came sharply into focus by a recent X post, when Musk publicly outlined a shift in SpaceX’s priorities. He said the company would place greater emphasis on building a self-growing city on the Moon, arguing that lunar development could proceed far faster than Mars colonisation due to shorter travel times and more frequent launch windows. Musk explained that missions to the Moon take days, while missions to Mars take months and are constrained by narrow launch opportunities every two years.
Musk’s Moon city vision and what it means
Musk followed up with social media posts describing the Moon as a practical testing ground for large-scale off-world civilisation. He emphasised that frequent launches and repeated landings would allow SpaceX to refine construction techniques, life-support systems, and logistics far more quickly than would be possible on Mars. The approach reflects SpaceX’s long-standing philosophy of failing fast, learning quickly, and iterating relentlessly until success becomes routine.This vision builds on SpaceX’s existing role in NASA’s Artemis programme, where the company has already secured contracts to develop a lunar lander. Musk’s argument is that speed and repetition, even at the cost of early failures, are essential if humanity is serious about building permanent settlements beyond Earth .
Bezos responds with a tortoise
Not long after Musk’s remarks gained traction, Bezos posted a stark black-and-white close-up image of a tortoise on social media, tagging Blue Origin. There was no caption explaining the image, yet the symbolism was immediately understood. The post was widely interpreted as a reference to Blue Origin’s long-standing motto, Gradatim Ferociter, which translates to “step by step, ferociously” .The image appeared to position Blue Origin as the tortoise in the fable, advancing slowly but deliberately toward the Moon, in contrast to SpaceX’s faster and more aggressive approach. In the context of Musk’s Moon city announcement, the timing of the post made it difficult to see it as anything other than a subtle challenge.
Musk’s reaction and the tone of the rivalry
Musk responded first with humour, asking “Turtle heading?” in a light-hearted jab at Blue Origin’s pace. He later followed with another tongue-in-cheek remark about moving slowly but ferociously, leaning into the metaphor rather than rejecting it .Soon after, Musk adopted a more serious tone. He stated that Blue Origin landing on the Moon before SpaceX would be perfectly acceptable to him, adding that he would congratulate the company if it happened. He then reframed the debate, arguing that the real challenge is not who lands first, but who can repeatedly land massive amounts of equipment and people to support a self-sustaining lunar city. In that sense, Musk suggested, SpaceX may at times resemble the tortoise more than the hare.
The race to dominate the Moon
The exchange underscores a growing contrast in how the two companies approach space exploration. Musk’s strategy is often associated with speed, large-scale ambition, and a willingness to learn through repeated testing and setbacks. Bezos, by comparison, has emphasised durability, reliability, and building systems intended to operate over long time horizons. As both companies pursue roles in NASA’s lunar programme, they are also competing for influence, funding, and strategic relevance in shaping the next phase of human activity beyond Earth.Unlike the original fable, this is not a race with a clearly defined finish line. The Moon is widely seen as a testing ground rather than a final destination, with its importance tied to what can be learned about sustaining human presence off Earth. The focus is less on a single landing and more on the ability to operate repeatedly, safely, and at scale.Viewed this way, the tortoise-and-hare metaphor has become a useful shorthand for a space race that is still unfolding. As timelines, technologies, and ambitions evolve, the rivalry between Musk and Bezos reflects broader questions about how quickly and how cautiously humanity should move as it pushes deeper into space.