His portfolio of electric cars, suburban solar installations, and other transport projects are promoted to the public, but they are designed to work best if not exclusively for the elite. In fact, Musk's company SpaceX could be expropriated entirely and, at a valuation of roughly $75 billion, it'd pay for only 2 percent of the budget bill. The ship does look likewellyou know. It was positioned as a bold next step in the billionaire space race that has been escalating for several years, though it didnt take long for its true face to show itself. (Video: Reuters), In a video produced for Blue Origin, founder Jeff Bezos talks his planned July 20 trip to space as part of the company's first crewed spaceflight. Richard Branson's disappointing space jaunt. Another mention of Amazon's working conditions. On Saturday, SpaceX CEO Musk appeared to spend most of his day responding to memes that had been sent to him on Twitter which, in fairness, he seems to do every day. At a moment when we should be throwing everything we have into ensuring the planet remains habitable, billionaires are treating us to a spectacle to distract us from their quest for continued capitalist accumulation and the disastrous effects it is already having. But no space races.". The Rich Are Planning to Leave This Wretched Planet. Well I made sourdough croissants this morning but you don't hear me bragging Branson wants to bring space to the average person.How about food?let's do that one first. The Billionaire Space Race is a colloquial name given to the efforts of Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson, Tesla and SpaceX's Elon Musk and Amazon's Jeff Bezos to fly on commercial rockets of their companies' own making to outer space. SpaceX wants to lower space transportation costs. They won their court fight in 2014. "Why won't he fly to space like all the other weirdo billionaires?" Both billionaires' flights ended without apparent issue, with . What would you do if you are a billionaire? Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, went to the edge of space on Tuesday, July 20. And also for totally not overcompensating for something https://t.co/fI3OMxiaVQ, Quite the liftoff. But he also believes that governments are better suited for long-term exploration, priorities and investment. For critics, the money poured into private vanity projects is unforgivable when there is so much to be done right here on Earth. The space race playing out among billionaires like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk has little to do with science it's a PR-driven spectacle designed to distract us from the disasters capitalism is causing here on Earth. Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic crew are safely back from space, ushering in a new era, Bezos, by contrast, has had a lifelong fascination with space. . Other memes poked fun at the entire concept of a billionaire tooling around in space for an hour, with plenty of comic-book and superhero references. By. Still, if billionaires want to spend their fortunes blasting off into space, is it anyone elses business? On the GrowthBusters podcast, we come to terms with the limits to growth, explore the joy of . [18], In April 2021, SpaceX beat Blue Origin to a 2.9 billion dollar contract to build the lunar lander for NASA's Artemis program. However . As Sim Kern explains, keeping just a few people alive on the International Space Station takes a staff of thousands and it gets harder the farther away people are from the one world we can truly call home. True, Bezos didn't actually "pave the way": he was the second billionaire businessman to head to space, with Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson beating him by 9 days, but his trip has inspired just as many memes and jokes. Many have dismissed this as billionaire bravado that pays little attention to . Already on our list? Instead, he believes we should build large structures in Earths orbit where the human population can grow to a trillion people without further harming the planets environment. On top of all that, SpaceX won $900 million in subsidies from the Federal Communications Commission to provide rural broadband through its overhyped Starlink satellites. Earth is in space. People doubt her as a female roofer: Were proving them wrong every day, She rescues baby squirrels: Theyre quite destructive. The Billionaire Space Race. Want CNET to notify you of price drops and the latest stories? Critics have slammed Branson and Bezos for "not reading the room," saying that this is an especially cringeworthy time to be joyfully cavorting in space as income inequality rises, the West is burning, the Taliban is advancing, and COVID-19 cases are edging upward again. Bezos is worth $192.6 billion, Branson is worth $6.3 billion, and Musk is worth $165.9 billion. To their fans, the promise of expanding our reach beyond this planet is thrilling. Smug smile and pigeyed face will do that. Paris Marx is a socialist writer and host of the Tech Won't Save Us podcast. Stone is still a little surprised Bezos is taking the risk. As we live out our lives in ONeill cylinders, as theyre called, well take occasional vacations down to the surface to experience the wonder of the world we once called home. Its a dramatic gesture and symbolizes the level of belief he has in that team and in the rocket, he says. "Branson determined to beat Bezos by increasing worker benefits 15%. I space out 10 hours a day, for free. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Billionaire: An individual who has assets or a net worth of at least one billion currency units such as dollars, euros or pounds. J. Dick wrote, Our entry into space has altered the intellectual landscape of the 20th and 21st centuries in ways large and small, broadening our horizons in ways we sometimes fail to recognize.. But as these billionaires had their eyes turned to the stars and the media showered them with the headlines they craved, the evidence that the climate of our planet is rapidly changing in a way that is hostile to life both human and otherwise was escalating. I was on the F train longer than Bezos was in space today. Mashable is a registered trademark of Ziff Davis and may not be used by third parties without express written permission. He picked his launch date, July 20, because its the day in 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first stepped on the moon. [6] Space.com Virgin Galactic will launch billionaire Richard Branson into space today. Im a bad twitterer. And he believes this is a form of philanthropy, that by building this company and helping to usher in, like, a new Space Age, he will be helping humanity generations from now.. Ive said I want to die on Mars, he explained in 2013. In the aftermath, Congress considered increasing NASAs budget by $10 billion, in part so it could hand a second contract to Blue Origin. Musk clearly got a kick out of this and responded with haha. The results of a reader poll revealed that Sir Richard Branson beat his two closest rivals, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos into second and third place respectively. Bezos, along with three others, spent around 11 minutes in the New Shepard rocket which reached the edge of space before returning to Earth. Jeff Bezos made history on Tuesday after the Amazon founder made a very brief trip to space on board his Blue Origin spaceship. On the day of Bezos' launch, Twitter user @GeorgeMeade13[9] tweeted, "I miss the old days were billionaires vanity projects was to build 1000 public libraries or giant music venues," gaining over 37,000 retweets and 267,000 likes (shown below, left). Is that about right? According to NASA, competition between commercial space companies like SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has already helped to bring down the cost of reaching low-Earth orbit by a factor of 20 . Stuck on 'Quordle' #400? The contrast between those stories is striking. Bezos, who takes flight on July 20, is now the wealthiest man on Earth, worth about $200 billion dollars. This race has only deepened the divide between those who love to see the very rich launch into space and those who wish they would never come back. The brash Britisher, the founder of Virgin Galactic, said today he will fly into space aboard his . Richard Branson takes off on July 11, 2021 from a base in New Mexico aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel bound for the edge of space. But heres the thing about billionaires: They dont really care what we think. The space race playing out among billionaires like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk has little to do with science its a PR-driven spectacle designed to distract us from the disasters capitalism is causing here on Earth. Is the Virgin Galactic billionaire going to acquire Fantastic Four-style superpowers now? 'i' For example, people nearing retirement often limit their bucket lists to the things they think they can afford, which doesnt always reflect how they actually want to live their lives in retirement. [8] CNN Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson went to space. We desperately need the public to see through the spectacle of the billionaire space race and recognize that theyre not laying the groundwork for a fantastic future, or even advancing scientific knowledge about the universe. In 2014, Virgin Galactic launched the VSS Enterprise, which crashed, killing one of the two pilots. "I'll tell you why I'm here. Our new issue on nationalism is out now. After responding to a question about the new Tesla FSD Beta, the South African entrepreneur was sent a meme using the now-legendary Padme and Anakin format from Star Wars, except it featured both him and Bezos. Now the billionaire battle is for space, albeit short, suborbital flights. (Video: Blue Origin/Jeff Bezos via Storyful). -cant-get-over-how-much-jeff-bezos-looks-like-the-stonks-meme-guy/" title="Read more" >&#8230;</a></p> Billionaires in space: The launch of a dream or just out-of-this-world ego? Its expensive. Others were just unimpressed by how short the flight was. Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson get a thrill, but they're also pushing flight forward. 2007-2023 Literally Media Ltd. Baby Boomers Fear The 'Day Of The Pillow,' For It Is Not About Having A Mass Pillow Fight, Four Years Ago, These Buff Men Gave You Advice You'll Never Forget, Almost A Decade Later, 'Dressgate' Remains A Classic Optical Illusion. Branson employees: "He put creatures in our ears, to control ours brains", He looks like a dehydrated piece of fruit. This continues the friendly spat that has been developing between Musk and Bezos and, more recently, Richard Branson, who also travelled to the edge of space earlier this month on the maiden voyage of his Virgin Galactic spaceplane. from Mashable that may sometimes include advertisements or sponsored content. PROS. All rights reserved. This subreddit is not the place to debate socialism. Its to get the public on board for a new phase of capitalist accumulation whose benefits will be reaped by those billionaires. 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