Elon Musk et al Space Tourism Criticized, Better Manage Pandemic

 


When billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson made space tours, many criticized them for doing them in the midst of the fight against the pandemic. One of the critics was Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres.

Guterres' criticism was delivered in his speech at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday (22/9). On the sidelines of his speech on the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and climate change, Guterres took the time to criticize the recent developments in space tourism.


According to Guterres, the journey of billionaires like Bezos et al into space shows an increasingly widening economic gap in the midst of a pandemic.



"COVID and the climate crisis have exposed deep vulnerabilities as a society and as a planet. But instead of humility in the face of this epic challenge, we see arrogance," Guterres said. ).


"When they see billionaires traveling into space at a time when millions of people are starving on Earth ... the people we serve and represent may lose faith not only in their governments and institutions - but in the values ​​that have imbued the United Nations for so long. 75 years," he continued.


As is known, on July 11, Richard Branson became the first billionaire to fly into space using a plane made by his company Virgin Galactic. Nine days later, Jeff Bezos followed Branson into space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket.





In addition to Bezos and Branson, Elon Musk as the founder of SpaceX has also helped develop the space tourism business and recently launched a space mission filled with civilian crews. The difference is that Musk has never flown directly into orbit.


Although some of these inaugural flights were boarded by veteran volunteers and astronauts, the ticket prices set for these trips are fantastic. For example, if you want to travel to space using a Virgin Galactic aircraft, prospective passengers must prepare a fund of USD 250,000.


Bezos himself had time to answer a similar criticism shortly before flying into space. In an interview with CNN, Bezos admits there are many problems on Earth that need to be solved, but developing technology for the future is just as important.


"They're mostly right. We have to do both. We have a lot of problems right now on Earth and we have to solve them, and we have to always look to the future. We have to do both," Bezos said at the time.

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