USA's new space race slows down as Bezos sues to keep Musk from soaring

Bezos's companies are increasingly resorting to politics and legal filings to get ahead as they fall behind Elon Musk's SpaceX and satellite-based broadband services

Space races are supposed to be won in engineering labs or up in orbit. Thanks to Jeff Bezos, the next one might be won in a courtroom or regulator’s office.

As Bezos’s companies fall behind Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the race to return humans to the moon and launch satellite-based broadband services, they’re increasingly resorting to politics and legal filings to get ahead. It’s not exactly a novel approach in Washington. But if Bezos prevails, it could do significant damage to America’s commercial space industry, just as it’s starting to get off the ground.

It may be hard to believe