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Captain Kirk: Bezos' Blue Origin to Send William Shatner into Space

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Captain Kirk: Bezos' Blue Origin to Send William Shatner into Space

#31

Post by MisterBastahrd »

dehrmann wrote: post #14
TMWNN wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given Shatner's prior comments on the subject, it's obvious that Bezos is paying Shatner a lot of money to be able to advertise that Captain Kirk flew on a Blue Origin rocket. Definitely the sort of thing that a competitor that knows that it is behind and is willing to do/pay anything to get ahead would do.

Shatner does seem to always want to make a buck, but at 90, with all those years of conventions, meet and greets, and sweet TJ Hooker royalty checks, doesn't he have enough money?

Shatner probably made more from his Priceline.com endorsement than the entire rest of his career combined.

Re: Captain Kirk: Bezos' Blue Origin to Send William Shatner into Space

#34

Post by Maursault »

flerchin wrote: post #8

The risk/reward doesn't seem to make sense for Bezos. If Shatner dies, it'll be the end of their program. If he lives, maybe a marginal benefit? The man is 90, and his health is not stellar. He legit could die of anything.

The risk vs. reward doesn't quite make sense for very nearly all ambitions of manned space exploration. But this isn't space exploration, it is civilians in space, which always was and always will be a dumb idea. Though 7 died in the Challenger disaster, 6 were astronauts, and 4 of those were military. They, and the 7 astronauts lost in the Columbia disaster, knew and understood the risks of space flight. Christa McAuliffe was neither an astronaut nor had a military career. Of all the mistakes NASA has made, the worst of them was killing a school teacher. Blue Origin and SpaceX have some astoundingly bad ideas specifically regarding civilians in space. There may be a compelling demand for it, but that doesn't make it moral or rational. I rate putting civilians in space on par with selling cocaine, except cocaine, as dangerous as it is, is not nearly as dangerous as space flight.

Re: Captain Kirk: Bezos' Blue Origin to Send William Shatner into Space

#35

Post by hunterb123 »

robomartin wrote: post #29

My take is a little bit different from what I've read so far. SpaceX just completed a truly history all-civilian, all-non-astronaut, three day orbital flight at an altitude above the ISS. SpaceX also secured Artemis mission contracts. They go to space all the time and continue to optimize their reusable orbital-class systems. the Blue Origin and Virgin offerings are not even in the same class. And Blue Origin/Bezos i…

That's a spot on summary.

Re: Captain Kirk: Bezos' Blue Origin to Send William Shatner into Space

#36

Post by lloydgrossman »

whymauri wrote: post #27
hibby wrote: post #5

Bezos if you kill Shatner so many people are going to be furious

Bezos is a huge Trek fan, so he'd be equally mortified is my guess.

I'm not sure he's quite understood the economics of the 24th century.

Re: Captain Kirk: Bezos' Blue Origin to Send William Shatner into Space

#37

Post by [deleted] »

Maursault wrote: post #34
flerchin wrote: post #8

The risk/reward doesn't seem to make sense for Bezos. If Shatner dies, it'll be the end of their program. If he lives, maybe a marginal benefit? The man is 90, and his health is not stellar. He legit could die of anything.

The risk vs. reward doesn't quite make sense for very nearly all ambitions of manned space exploration. But this isn't space exploration, it is civilians in space , which always was and always will be a dumb idea. Though 7 died in the Challenger disaster, 6 were astronauts, and 4 of those were military. They, and the 7 astronauts lost in the Columbia disaster, knew and understood the risks of space flight. Christa Mc…

[deleted]

Re: Captain Kirk: Bezos' Blue Origin to Send William Shatner into Space

#38

Post by boboche »

orionblastar wrote: post #19

Well Shatner did promote other products like the Commodore VIC-20: https://youtu.be/UK9VU1aJvTI

Careful how you treat this, lots of people around here got their first computer interaction with the VIC-20, completed their first programs tutorial with an ascii jumping jack and played gorf! ;)

Re: Captain Kirk: Bezos' Blue Origin to Send William Shatner into Space

#39

Post by sokoloff »

Maursault wrote: post #34
flerchin wrote: post #8

The risk/reward doesn't seem to make sense for Bezos. If Shatner dies, it'll be the end of their program. If he lives, maybe a marginal benefit? The man is 90, and his health is not stellar. He legit could die of anything.

The risk vs. reward doesn't quite make sense for very nearly all ambitions of manned space exploration. But this isn't space exploration, it is civilians in space , which always was and always will be a dumb idea. Though 7 died in the Challenger disaster, 6 were astronauts, and 4 of those were military. They, and the 7 astronauts lost in the Columbia disaster, knew and understood the risks of space flight. Christa Mc…

The school teacher was among 11K applicants to the program. I don’t find it immoral to allow non-military to put themselves voluntarily at risk.

Re: Captain Kirk: Bezos' Blue Origin to Send William Shatner into Space

#40

Post by DerekL »

AdamHominem wrote: post #15
flerchin wrote: post #8

The risk/reward doesn't seem to make sense for Bezos. If Shatner dies, it'll be the end of their program. If he lives, maybe a marginal benefit? The man is 90, and his health is not stellar. He legit could die of anything.

Neither Virgin nor Blue Origin actually go into orbit or even "space", and both have a trash safety culture and a not-much-better record: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/science/jeff-bezos-blue-o... https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-red-warning-lig... This is obviously a PR stunt, but the point of the stunt it to get people to think Blue Origin = "space"

No, Blue Origin really does go into space. But it's good to point out the huge difference between going to space and staying there.
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