Space Joyrides for the Rich

"While the rich have long enjoyed luxury cars, mansions and yachts, their newest luxury vehicle is the spaceship. Musk has the most useful rockets as his SpaceX vessels can put satellites into orbit and reach the International Space Station. While they do make some innovations, they are more of an evolution of existing rockets rather than a revolution in space travel. Virgin Galactic has a spaceplane, which can be likened to a passenger version of the old X-15."

"Bezos has acknowledged the validity of this criticism, saying "Well, I say they're largely right. We have to do both. You know, we have lots of problems here and now on Earth and we need to work on those, and we always need to look to the future. We've always done that as a species, as a civilization. We have to do both.""

"He is right that the critics are largely right: while Musk can claim his SpaceX ships put cargo into space, Branson and Bezos have been joyriding (just barely) into space. Vast resources were expended to for these joyrides, and, in the case of Bezos, it can be argued that his flight was enabled by his brutal exploitation of his workforce. As is well known, Amazon workers have been pushed so hard that they need to pee in bottles to meet the requirements of their job."

Billionaires are converting wealth into private spacecraft, treating them as new luxury items. SpaceX produces practical rockets that place satellites into orbit and service the International Space Station, representing evolutionary advances. Virgin Galactic operates a spaceplane resembling a passenger X-15, primarily oriented toward tourism. Bezos flew on a conventional suborbital rocket with limited reach, suitable mainly for tourism. Critics label these ventures wasteful when urgent problems persist on Earth. Bezos concedes critics' concerns while arguing for pursuing both earthly solutions and long-term space infrastructure. Allegations of labor exploitation at Amazon complicate claims about the moral basis for such flights.

Read at A Philosopher's Blog