Lot of people in this thread are arguing that wealthy people can spend money on what ever they want. I think it’s important to distinguish whether the money they spend on personal joy rides has been taxed as private income or written off as business expense. Does anyone have information on whether Bezos‘ investments into Blue Origin has been taxed previously as personal income when he presumably liquidated Amazon stock?
Blue Origin first human flight
191–200 of 504 posts
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing that amuses me is that if SpaceX can make Starship and the Heavy booster work, they could actually come up with a tourism/joyride that would blow these piffling jumps by Branson and Bezos into irrelevance. If you can send 50-100 people on an actual orbiting jaunt, perhaps a night in 'space rocket hotel', rich folk would gladly pay millions, which makes the business case a lot more compelling. Then they'd ju…
That's the dream; affordable space tourism for the masses. If Starship manages to hit the price and performance targets Musk has set for it (~$2 million/launch[1], max of 1000 passengers[2]) you could get a ticket to orbit for around $2000. Throw in some extra for profit margin, a stay at an orbital space hotel, and a few additional expenses, and it might well be possible to take a vacation in space for less than $10…
Good place to watch the decay of the human species because of climate change. Space tourism will accelerate it.
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing that amuses me is that if SpaceX can make Starship and the Heavy booster work, they could actually come up with a tourism/joyride that would blow these piffling jumps by Branson and Bezos into irrelevance. If you can send 50-100 people on an actual orbiting jaunt, perhaps a night in 'space rocket hotel', rich folk would gladly pay millions, which makes the business case a lot more compelling. Then they'd ju…
> rich folk would gladly pay millions, which makes the business case a lot more compelling. I would say some would but keep in mind that a few other things have to come together. a) Willing to take the risk (non trivial example I would not do this no chance) b) Your family/spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend has to buy into the risk even if it's just you going into the orbit. c) Potential negative publicity as in 'look how t…
How many amateurs pay a lot of money to be able to say they went to the top of mount Everest, which is probably a lot more risky?
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#194I found it annoying, even a bit insulting, that they kept referring to the people in the capsule as "astronauts". I could understand if they did it for Wally Funk, as she actually did the training back in the day, but the rest? When rich people were allowed in the ISS they were called "tourists", which is befitting.
That seems pedantic. Just because technology has lowered the requirements for becoming an astronaut, that doesn't change the definition.
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
Walk before you run. I very much doubt Blue Origin intends to freeze rocket development after this launch. Blue Origin now has a successful manned flight under their belt, and a revenue stream. While it might surprise some here, Amazon started by selling just books... It feels like similar attitude comments on that would have been "They'll never compete with Walmart. Real retail stores sell all kinds of things."
Well to be fair, they don't compete with Walmart. Walmart almost doubled Amazon's revenue last year, and that was during the height of a pandemic, which naturally steered people towards more online orders, something you think would tip the scales in Amazon's favor.
> Walmart almost doubled Amazon's revenue last year,
Eh... that's not really true, it's about 1.45x the revenue, not 2x. And that's not the whole picture.
Revenue for 2020:
Walmart: $559 billion
Amazon: $386 billion
Walmart: $20.6 billion
Amazon: $22.9 billion
Walmart: $15.2/14.9 billion
Amazon: $22.1/21.3 billionRe: Blue Origin first human flight
#196I feel the same way when software developers call themselves engineers.
What if we have engineering degrees? That change anything? Edit: That being said, depending on who I am talking to it ranges from "I do computers" to "I am a computer programmer", and very rarely use "engineer" unless I am referring to my actual degree (BSCpE).
If you had a biology degree and were a mailman, would you call your profession 'biologist'? No. That's absurd, as is calling people who write JavaScript, most of whom don't even have computer science degrees, engineers. It's nothing but grandiosity and ignorance of what engineering is.
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#197This felt so underwhelming. I don't know if it's because I've seen SpaceX doing much more complicated missions or it's just not that big of a deal. They got about two minutes of zero G and came down immediately. You can experience that for much longer with a regular plane, for much less money. It really shouldn't count as space travel unless they go into orbit around Earth.
The underwhelming part is that it took so long. The first private manned suborbital flight occurred in 2004 with SpaceShipOne. It is 17 years later at this point and only now do we have paying customers for sub-orbital flight.
Yes. What made it take this long?
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#198I'd like to have gone for the ride, but it was rather underwhelming, and slightly absurd, from the spectator POV.
Four dingbats going for a 10min joyride in a mobile lounge strapped onto a dick-shaped rocket.
Still, I'm all for billionaires pursuing daft dreams like this rather than just buying big yachts like Larry Ellison, or not much of anything like Bill Gates. At least Bezos is putting on a mildly entertaining show for us to watch.
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#199I found it annoying, even a bit insulting, that they kept referring to the people in the capsule as "astronauts". I could understand if they did it for Wally Funk, as she actually did the training back in the day, but the rest? When rich people were allowed in the ISS they were called "tourists", which is befitting.
That seems pedantic. Just because technology has lowered the requirements for becoming an astronaut, that doesn't change the definition.
So if I go on an ocean cruise I'm a Sailor?
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#200I found it annoying, even a bit insulting, that they kept referring to the people in the capsule as "astronauts". I could understand if they did it for Wally Funk, as she actually did the training back in the day, but the rest? When rich people were allowed in the ISS they were called "tourists", which is befitting.
I find strange that line of thinking. That NASA and other space agencies use highly trained personnel like military pilots for space missions seems largely a historical accident. In "The Right Stuff", there is discussion on this topic, initially trapeeze artists were thought to be the ideal personnel for the space program due to the high dynamic forces they routinely experience. Another opinion being considered was t…
>"Finally it was decided to use military pilots from mostly a PR point of view."
I suspect that decision making process was dramatized in The Right Stuff. Test pilots make sense for several reasons: they already understand aeronautical concepts, are used to g-forces, have experience with state of the art machines, have a high risk tolerance, and are already familiar with following orders.