Blast off from reality: The billionaires’ Space Race during a global pandemic

‘Dad. Dad, what star is that? Oh that’s not a star son, that’s Jeff Bezos’

Musk v. Branson v. Bezos- the ultimate billionaire space race has begun

All three men, who’s total combined wealth is 400 billion dollars, have invested large amounts of their money into chasing their space travel dreams- creating a modern space race of the 21st Century- the difference with this space race of course being that it is between rich men and not entire countries.

Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, along with his brother, the now oldest and the youngest individuals to ever go into space, travelled on a 10 minute flight this week aboard Bezos’ New Shepard rocket ship. He described it as “the best day ever”. Yeah you read that right, 10 minutes. But with Musk’s Teslas floating around spacing, it’s surprising that Bezos could see anything through the windows of his questionably shaped rocket. And what would happen if something were to go wrong? Would there be billionaires floating around the earth’s orbit?

Although many have been excited by the outcome of these missions, it is understandable why so many have also forgotten about it all together. With the lingering effects of the global pandemic still being felt across the globe, it’s hard for most people to be as excited as Bezos and Branson who have only padded their wallets over the past year. It makes us wonder what else their money could be used for? It’s almost like they have completely forgotten not only about the global pandemic that is Covid-19, but also the deprivation and poverty that can be seen globally, or indeed the impact that their companies are having on global warming.

So while Richard Branson is circling the Earth, looking away from the day to day problems of his home country, the burden of feeding school children in the UK has been put onto more ‘relatable’ stars like footballer Marcus Rashford. When we dream of winning big money on the lottery of course there are loads of outlandish and ridiculous things we claim that we would buy, but what happens when it is actually a reality? For the likes of Musk, they have money that we could only dream of. Money that could make a real difference to the world! Sure it’s important to look after your family but what about the town where you grew up, or the pupils that now go to the same school you went to?

We know that when it comes to the safety of children, we at DragonflAI will be more biased than most but I am sure that many will agree that when it comes to issues like online safety, and some of the issues that we have explored in previous blogs, that there are a lot more serious problems that need to be addressed here on Earth. We all want to look to the stars and dream, but there is no doubt we want to look to some of these ‘stars,’ and see them focusing on issues non-rocket owners have to deal with.