All,
It’s official, we live in a cartoon.
Yesterday we got an announcement on par with the likes of Scrooge McDuck. Jeff Bezos, founder and former CEO of Amazon, announced on Monday that he is headed to space next month when Blue Origin launches its manned spaceflight. He is going to leave the safe, secure surface to chase a childhood dream according to a recent New York Times article.
“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space,” Mr. Bezos, 57, said on Instagram. He said his brother Mark would join him on the flight, allowing him to embark on “the greatest adventure, with my best friend.”
Mr. Bezos made the announcement in the middle of a busy year for human spaceflight. Blue Origin’s biggest competitors in private rocketry, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, have both announced a number of trips to carry a variety of individuals on launches or flights high above the planet, but neither as yet plans a passenger of such a high profile.
This will be the first manned flight in Blue Origin’s 21-year history and what a flight it will be. For those of you not familiar with the cartoon comparison, Scrooge McDuck is Donald Duck's wealthy uncle and would definitely do something like this. Imagine the amount of pressure you would feel if you were in charge of that launch. I would be sweating bullets as one of the richest men on Earth and his brother stepped into the cockpit. If anything were to go wrong people would line up to see who was responsible. I can’t believe Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin are serious.
But they are serious and as crazy as it sounds the richest man in the world is going to space. However, rich people going to space isn’t that crazy with closer inspection.
SpaceX has a couple of missions in the next 12 months that are to take private citizens to orbit. One is scheduled to launch in September and will carry Jared Isaacman, the billionaire founder of Shift4 Payments, and three other amateur astronauts, on a trip to orbit. A second, booked by the company Axiom Space, will carry three wealthy individuals and an astronaut working for the company to the International Space Station. Mr. Musk has said he would eventually want to go to Mars, but he has not announced any plans to go to space himself in the near future.
It used to be that astronauts were heroes. Now they’re just anyone with a wallet large enough to hitch a ride.
Could you imagine being so incredibly rich that you plan a trip to space? It is utterly confusing to me why people would ever want to spend this much money on an experience they'll have for only a few hours. Let's pretend that a trip to space costs $20 million. Imagine what you could do with that amount of money. You could build a business and create jobs, buy a yacht, have Great Gatsby-type parties with music, gourmet food and tons of people. The spiritual experience Bezos claims to want could be satisfied by climbing Mount Everest, hiking through the Grand Canyon or sailing around the world. But it's not good enough for some people.
There is genuine excitement and hope through my layer of cynicism. This is just the beginning. 10 years ago, the idea that someone (who isn’t an astronaut) could go into space would’ve been ludicrous. Maybe space travel will be more accessible in the next 10 years.
Maybe one day one of you will be able to explore the final frontier. The more people who are able to do it the lower the price will get. We could one day be a part of this exclusive club. Going to space could be like traveling to Europe, it may take time to save up and plan it out but you can get there.
Honestly, I should thank these crazy rich people for taking the chance and testing it out for the rest of us. If someone came up to me and said "You can either go to space now or in 10 years?", I'd quickly and proudly say the latter. I want to make sure all the kinks are worked out before I decide to strap myself to a rocket.
I'd love to go to space one day, who wouldn't, but it's virtually impossible right now and I'd rather wait.
Jeff will hold down the fort up there until then. Him and the rest of his cartoon friends.
Jacob