Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has spent two decades trailing Elon Musk's SpaceX in the space-exploration race. To fix this, Bezos has turned to a trusted Amazon.com Incoming Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp, who shepherded Alexa's introduction in 2014, is a fierce guardian of Amazon and Bezos' leadership principles, which put a premium on speed and solving customer problems. "Dave has an outstanding sense of urgency, brings energy to everything, and helps teams move very fast," Bezos told employees on Monday in an email seen by Bloomberg.

Honda Motor Co. said Thursday it aims to develop and test-launch a small rocket in the 2020s, eventually loading a satellite to be used for its connected cars that offer various services via the internet. The automaker, which has been working on small rockets and plans to enter the space industry in the future, said it envisions reusing its rocket by enabling some of the components to land back on Earth after launching. To achieve this, Honda will make use of the control and guidance technologies it has created through the development of automated driving technologies. "We hope to deliver values that go ahead of the times," said Keiji Otsu, president and representative director of the automaker's research unit Honda R&D Co. The automaker said it also wants to grow the project into a business of putting up satellites developed by other companies.