Billionaire space battle heats up as Jeff Bezos eyes SpaceX rival

When the Vulcan rocket lifts off for the first time as soon as next week, multiple billionaires are sure to be watching.

Built through a joint venture of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., the new vehicle is poised to take on Elon Musk’s SpaceX and ferry satellites and cargo for the likes of the Pentagon, NASA and even Amazon.com Inc.

Vulcan is also helping fuel takeover offers for the company building it, the United Launch Alliance. Among them is a multibillion-dollar bid from Blue Origin LLC, the ambitious space venture run by billionaire Jeff Bezos, according to people familiar with the matter.