Parts shortages have been stubbornly persistent for Tesla and other automakers. Institutional and retail investors asked for updates on when the company plans to start commercial production of its Cybertruck and custom battery cells, and how Tesla will weather ongoing parts shortages and the rising cost of raw materials that Musk previously complained about. In fact, at least one billionaire, Charles Simonyi, has already traveled to space.During the quarter, among other challenges, Tesla faced a backlash from consumers in China, recalls in China and the U.S., and delayed deliveries of the high-performance version of its flagship sedan, the Model S Plaid. *This article previously misstated that Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are vying to become the first billionaires in space. After all, they’re only going to “space.” I had a feeling it’s tiny, it’s shiny, it’s beautiful, it’s home, and it’s fragile.” Maybe this quick trip really will change the billionaires, but I’m not counting on it. “The thing that really surprised me was that projected an air of fragility,” the Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins said. This is one of the universal sentiments that astronauts express once setting foot back on the ground: Looking at Earth, from up above, gives you a different perspective, enough to shift something inside. When they are pushed upward into the sky, they will live-stream their experience, their bodies briefly floating, staring out at the curvature of our delicate and beautiful planet, all of us invisible. However, even after their trip past the atmosphere, the space billionaires still have to come back here and face the world. They can’t truly escape Earth now, and they likely never will, but they can avoid helping make this planet better. Billionaires have purchased private islands, built underground bunkers, and gotten LASIK to prepare for not having glasses during the climate apocalypse. While Bezos and Branson will be in space-I mean, “space”-for just a few minutes, their departure is yet another reminder of all the other earthly things they can avoid that the rest of us can’t. 2 richest person, if you’re keeping track) may not be far behind in his own space travels and is in the midst of ruining the night sky with his mega-constellation of satellites. Their fellow billionaire Elon Musk (currently the No. Branson has insisted that he is not in a competition with Bezos.)Īnd it’s not just them that make this display feel so gross. But given what humanity has been through in the past year and a half, I can’t help but wonder, what are they thinking? (I reached out to both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic for comment and neither company responded.
In recent years, Branson has proposed a climate dividend, while Bezos has pledged to spend $10 billion on climate efforts, though we still don’t know where most of that mone y will go.
To their credit, the two billionaires aren’t totally oblivious. Maybe, I don’t know, delay the missions a bit until people around the world are no longer desperately waiting for vaccines to save them from a deadly virus. If this were a movie, these men would be Gordon Gekko and Hal 9000-both venerated and hated. race in their private rocket ships to see who can get to space a few days before the other. Leaving Earth right now isn’t just bad optics it’s almost a scene out of a twisted B-list thriller: The world is drowning and scorching, and two of the wealthiest men decide to. Read: Jeff Bezos has reached his final form Anyone would want a break from this planet, but the billionaires are virtually the only ones who are able to leave. Oh yeah, then there’s the pandemic that is very much still not over. Hurricane season is starting early, and a once-in-200-years flood just ravaged northern Mississippi. Last week, Bezos’s hometown of Seattle hit 108 degrees. is in the thick of fire season, experiencing record-breaking drought and temperatures. Bezos will go 12 miles higher, just past the internationally recognized Karman Line, but he’ll be there for only four minutes.Ĭould there be a worse time for two über-rich rocket owners to take a quick jaunt toward the dark? Especially in the United States, the climate crisis is now actually starting to feel like a crisis.
* So now Branson, merely the world’s 589th richest person, is joining the crew of his next Virgin Galactic flight on Sunday, nine days before Bezos goes vertical.Īll of this to go to “space.” Branson will go only about 50 miles up, where the military says space starts. Dear billionaires, no one cares whom you beat to space.Īfter Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, announced that he would join the first crewed flight by his rocket company, Blue Origin, later this month, Richard Branson just couldn’t let himself be outdone.