Thursday, 6 May 2021

Blue Origin: Red Termination?

It's hard to feel anything, except trepidation, on hearing the news that Jeff Bezos intends to start his space visitor flights this July (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/may/06/jeff-bezoss-blue-origin-plans-space-sightseeing-jaunt-for-july). Bezos has invested some of his billions into developing a Blue Origins, 8-seater craft to take sightseers to the margins of space. The daytripper's costly ticket, purchased presumably to complete their 'bucket list', will entitle him/her to briefly experience weightlessness (they could do this in a centrifuge) and to see the Earth's curvature. Each flight will, of course, also massively boost 'greenhouse gas' emissions. It seems more than a bit ironic, given the environmental impact, the source of the Bezos billions, is a company called 'Amazon'. It really doesn't seem right, that the mega-rich can do things like expand their money-making into space flight, with little consideration of the wider impact of their actions. The announcement is also made on the same day, concern is expressed about the probability of pieces of a Chinese rocket, shortly falling to Earth. Precisely where, nobody knows (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/may/06/chinese-rocket-falling-crash-to-earth-saturday-china-space-station-long-march-5b-us-space-command). Space sightseeing vehicles could also prove directly hazardous to people on the ground, as well as exaccerbating climate change. Most of them, however, probably couldn't afford a ticket.

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