Jeff Bezos fulfills a dream and flies into space.
But the criticism is great.
The reason: Social injustice and a lack of consideration for the climate.
New York - Just before Amazon founder Jeff Bezos dared his short trip into space, the billionaire Richard Bransons literally pushed himself in between.
Ten days before the announced space excursion, the Briton flew into space with his spaceship “VSS Unity”.
But the criticism of it is getting louder and louder, while between 720 and 811 million people worldwide do not have enough food, the billionaires are competing to see who can leave the earth sooner - and for fun.
A prime example of social injustice?
Entrepreneur |
Jeff Bezos |
capital |
205 billion |
size |
1.71 m |
Age |
57 years |
Bezos still wants to follow suit - but the headline-grabbing billionaires' race for the fulfillment of their own all-dreams and the lucrative top position in the space tourism business is facing strong headwinds from critics who warn of selfish waste of money regardless of the climate and largely without scientific research interests.
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A view of the earth from the “VSS Unity” spaceplane.
© dpa / Uncredited
Billionaires in space: "No progress, just grotesque injustice"
"The fact that billionaires are flying into space is not a sign of progress," wrote former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich on Twitter.
"It is a mark of grotesque injustice that allows a few to leave the earth while the rest of humanity suffers."
The head of the World Food Program of the United Nations, David Beasley, called on Branson and Bezos to stand up for the hungry people on earth in addition to their space adventures.
Jeff Bezos' net worth is around 205 billion euros.
The global average to feed one person per day is around EUR 0.67 worldwide.
Criticism for lack of consideration for the climate
The lack of consideration for the climate is also repeatedly criticized.
Space travel is one of the most emission-rich undertakings of mankind, which the responsible national authorities always justify primarily with the excessive interest in research.
The private space companies also indicate such, but it is primarily about tourism.
Branson and Bezos' space flights are also about fulfilling childhood dreams and not science.
Flight into space and founding of Blue Origin: Amazon founder Bezos has had his dream of space since he was 5 years old
“I've dreamed of going into space since I was five,” says 57-year-old Bezos.
That's why the richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine, founded the space company Blue Origin around 20 years ago.
In the west of the US state of Texas, Blue Origin has developed and tested the “New Shepard” spaceship over the past few years.
The "New Shepard" has never flown manned - now the spacecraft, symbolically named after the first American in space, Alan Shepard, is set to take off with people on board for the first time to the day exactly 52 years after the first moon landing.
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Jeff Bezos (2nd from left) has wanted to fly into space since he was five.
© dpa / Blue Origin
In addition to Bezos, his brother Mark, an 82-year-old ex-pilot and an 18-year-old whose father gave him the flight, should take a seat in the capsule with the “largest windows in space”.
Bezos flight into space: Astronaut Wally Funk: 82-year-old oldest person in space of all time
82-year-old Wally Funk would be the oldest person to have ever flown into space - 18-year-old Oliver Daemen would be the youngest.
Daemen's father, the Dutch investment banker Joes Daemen, took part in the auction for fourth place on board the “New Shepard” in June, but was outbid.
The winner of the auction, who had offered $ 28 million and initially wanted to remain anonymous, could not be there this time due to a "scheduling conflict" and would start at a later date, it said.
How much money Daemen paid for the flight was not disclosed.
Jeff Bezos' space trip with the "New Shepard" takes around ten minutes
After take-off, the spaceship “New Shepard” should accelerate to more than 3700 kilometers per hour within two minutes.
Weightlessness should begin after three minutes, before the then separated capsule reaches its highest point more than 100 kilometers above the earth.
Then it is supposed to re-enter the earth's atmosphere and land, braked by large parachutes, in the Texan desert.
Overall, the trip should take around ten minutes.
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Richard Branson was a tourist in space with his spaceship “VSS Unity”.
© dpa / Susan Montoya Bryan
The International Aviation Association (FAI) and many other experts consider 100 kilometers above the earth to be the limit to space, but there are no binding international regulations.
Branson had ascended with the "VSS Unity" to an altitude of about 86 kilometers.
For comparison: the International Space Station ISS flies around 400 kilometers above the earth's surface.
Dennis Tito first tourist in space
But Branson wasn't the first tourist in space: several other companies and space agencies have already brought travelers into space.
In 2001, the US entrepreneur Dennis Tito spent a week on the International Space Station and paid around $ 20 million for it; he is considered the first space tourist.
Around half a dozen other private ISS visitors followed.
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Dennis Tito (left) was the first ever space tourist.
© dpa / Sergei Chirikov
But despite high hopes and expectations, the all-excursions haven't really gotten going.
The development and implementation of a space mission are associated with great safety risks and extremely expensive, so that until now they have only appeared to be reserved for trained professionals and - in top shape - the super rich.
Branson, Bezos and another billionaire, SpaceX founder Elon Musk, want to change that.
The much cheaper short trips from Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic could even make a kind of mass tourism possible.
Blue Origin: space travel like transatlantic flight
In terms of carbon dioxide emissions, the flight with the “VSS Unity” is roughly comparable to a round-trip transatlantic flight, and climate adjustments are also carried out, according to Virgin Galactic - but this has not been checked or verified by independent experts.
Blue Origin states that the "New Shepard" is operated with hydrogen and therefore does not emit any carbon dioxide - the production of hydrogen does, however.
In view of acute heat waves and fires in the western United States and the flood disaster in western Germany, but also the corona pandemic, the all-adventures of the millionaires did not send a good sign, commented the US news broadcaster CNN.
"This seems a strange moment for the richest people in the world to use their monstrous resources for an enterprise that has no immediate benefit for most of society." * Kreiszeitung.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
List of rubric lists: © dpa / Uncredited
