Well, several billionaires have now been to space. Woo. Hurray. Yippee.
I know, I know, a lot of people are happy about the potential privatization of space, since it will theoretically make space travel accessible to more people. And those people aren’t wrong… it will come at enormous cost in human life and waste, but yes, it will be available faster than if our current governments continue to treat space as an expensive novelty.
Of course, if the governments did bother to fund space travel to the extent that they should (or could, with minimal impact on bloated military budgets), we could do it all safer, faster, and with far broader application. But that won’t happen because people are scared of government waste and don’t care about the abject cruelty of private companies that can afford to fund this stuff.
I write about futures where humanity has reached the stars, either locally (like Tintian, in which all humanity is still restricted to the solar system), or galactically to various degrees. But in all cases it’s always governments that initially launched people towards the stars, either as explorers, colonists, or soldiers. The idea of a private company doing that… frankly… is a little terrifying.
But, hey, this is the dystopian hellscape we live in right now, and all things considered it could theoretically be worse. So I guess there is that.
As a final thought, my favourite comment about the space travel by the insultingly-rich was “The Bezos space journey started flawlessly, but tragedy struck two hours later when he returned to Earth safely.”
Stay safe and healthy out there, everyone.