It felt a bit cringe to me, the whole vibe of it just seemed off. The presenter's adoration/reaction was very cringe/over the top for me.. even the engineer guy's face kept falling.. watch it again.. imagine you put your efforts into something, building the rocket, then not being the one to fly it. And when they landed and all the camera men gathering around.. I thought "Is this it? Some guy just go to space for a few minutes and then have his pictures taken like it's some epic moment?" Meanwhile, we are in the middle of a pandemic, people suffering around the world, never mind amazon employee's issues, climate changing slowly starting to wreak havoc.. but hey, lets celebrate that guy going to space. Felt hollow in my stomach and not in a good way. When SpaceX landed those two rockets at the same time next to each other, I shed a tear of how insignificant my own career is, where with this event I felt nothing but hollowness.
I couldn’t care any less about watching rich people launch them selves to the edge of space.<p>I would much rather spend my time watching rich people launch things into space that will end up benefiting everyone like SpaceX using a Tesla as the dummy payload for the Falcon Heavy test flight.<p>I understand the whole 'space tourism' thing, but the reality is that it's only going to be the Jeff Bezos and Richard Bransons of the world who will be able to afford this stuff for a long time to come.<p>The scientific return from space tourism from companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin seems far less important than the work that companies like SpaceX are doing.<p>I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make here, But i just feel that rich folk launching them self to the edge of space is more entertainment/marketing vs actual scientific progress.
<i>“Perhaps someday Bezos might reveal that he was, as former astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield dared to hope on his CNN panel, brought back down to Earth metaphorically as well as physically by experiencing the planet he’s so thoroughly conquered from so many miles away. For now, though, the visual of the richest man in the world fist-pumping his way out of a rocket and into a giddy champagne toast says more than either he or the gushing pundits ever could.”</i>
I don't understand why people dedicate so much of their daily energy hating on billionaires' hobbies. The real waste of resource, in my mind, isn't in billionaires spending their pocket money in space exploration. It's in the millions of average persons dedicating 2 or 3h of their 16h/day budget on negative thoughts about other people's lives, poisoning their mood and ruining the 13 to 14 other hours they have left awake in those days. Whereas a positive outlook on things would probably provide them with a state of mind more fertile for ideas and improvements.<p>I think a lot more human ingenuity-capacity is wasted in jealousy and resentment of others, than what these billionaires may be spending on their hobbies.<p>* * *<p>I think the Blue Origin/Virgin Galactic "buy a tourist flight to space" is not my cup of tea, and I'd rather they were doing actually useful industrious space exploration stuff. But I think their puerile vanity hobbies are also not bad for technological advancements. The engineers working on this are going to develop more skills and knowledge, and that will not be lost. It'd be better if it was to do science or some industry, but it's not a net negative either.
What is the general opinion of HN? SpaceX tests/launches are met with much aplomb compared to Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic.<p>My opinion:
There is definitely a billionaire brag race on the space frontier, but I do think it's going to benefit space exploration overall.
I found the Blue Origin live stream pretty awful, not only the extremely over the top female moderator paired with the almost silent Gary Lai, but also the constant cheering from the capsule seemed pretty fake somehow. This took away a lot from the technical feat and made it into a pretty cheesy ad for the company, which I guess it was. Also calling the passengers astronauts all the time, we get it, they sat in a chair for 10 minutes that technically went to space, yeez...
I think if he had managed this 5 years ago people would be excited. Now though, it just seems kinda meh? They hyped it up too much, like it was a huge accomplishment on par with the moon landing. It just fell flat to me. Like the bad acting you get in the lines before the Terminator ride at Six Flags.
It bothers me that the article makes no reference to Wally Funk, the pilot - she's now the oldest person to have gone to space. Maybe it's cheesy of me to get a kick out of 'records' like that, but I enjoy that a lot more than caring about who commissioned the flight.
The world has 2,755 billionaires yet only 3 have had the vision and execution to create private companies that can launch into space. Only 3 countries in the world have ever launched humans into space - and now we can add 3 private companies to that list. This is an incredible achievement!<p>From my personal experience the Apollo missions had a profound impression on me and my decision to go into a engineering/math/science career. Imagine the impacts these events can have on today's kids and what they decide to do with their lives? Bezos is talking about manufacturing in space, creating moon colonies - that's exciting stuff! I don't understand the apathetic <i>meh</i> reaction, especially from the tech crowd.
I don't get what is so depressing from the article? Because the rich can afford it, and the poor can't? How do they imagine it should work instead?
It's a sign of the growing inequality and desperation of the 99%. I think space tourism is a nice milestone for mankind. But people are feeling hopeless about their own future - they are not able to see any opportunity in this for themselves. Anti-rich sentiment is exploding along with general hopelessness with climate change and covid.
I’m starting to become doubtful that the world is better today than 50 years ago and I wonder if we’re on a path of decline. That’s my impression and it might be downvoted but it should be expressed. Every generation has countless events that mimic some rich guy burning money for something best described as a short joy ride. Yet, in the past it wasn’t so in the face of the misfortunate. I think that’s why suicide is increasing among the young. Sure, access to healthcare is better nowadays but I question if today’s environment is healthy or in fact unhealthy for not well off people. They’re kind of stuck in a system that forces them to stay alive as slaves to capitalism while the rich dance in their face. I even think the tide is turning on belief in free will and meaning the ones born into the worst circumstances will find current today even more absurd than their past generations.
> As our world quite literally burns and crumbles around us<p>You could say that statement on any year ever. That's not valid criticism. For one thing , branson and bezos are apparently boomer-era entrepreneurs obsessed with largesse.<p>For another, humans are not ready for space, we ve been there, and lost interest in going back. The next humans to go there should be genetically modified and technologically supplanted so they can make use of space, not just "go there". The world has a lot of tourism already, too much of it. Would be nice if these people spent their money on genetic/longevity research and brain-computer interfaces instead.
I think the most depressing is the celebration of something that is kilometers away from an achievement. Its just a pure ego trip from bezos.<p>That said its not bad space interest more and more people these days
Last time humans landed on the Moon on 1972. On 2021 we have perfectly egocentric billionaires who muliplied their fortunes on ongoing pandemic... merely lift above the atmosphere.