https://www.space.com/polaris-program-facts-missions-history
I know that it is the mode to make fun of the billionaire astronauts space programs. Some even feel that the billionaire astronauts are doing something wrong by spending their money this way.
Many of you know that I'm somewhere to the left of Marx and Engels and that my hatred and despite for the rich knows few bounds. But here lies one of the bounds.
The pursuit of manned space flight thrills the shit out of me. Since I was old enough to know what I seeing and hearing on the teevee in the earliest days of Apollo, I've been in love with the idea of space travel. I devour the news of it, which is so much more voluminous with the interwebs and stuff. I read books about it, both real and ficitional. Until I was 15, I planned to become an astronaut, but I had it explained to me my eyesight would wash me out.
The billionaires, while spending their money to realize their childhood dreams and actually going to space, they are also spending their money on behalf of mankind. There is no Planet B. The time will come when we will have to leave, and we need to be ready. Even if it is only a small number of us. The rich will have to take scientists and engineers and fabricators and grunts with them if they are the ones who determine who gets to go.
And, with pioneering work sponsored by governments and by billionaires, our gains in technology related to space travel will grow and maybe we will all get to go.
So, a tip of my hat to Jared Isaacman and Musk and Bezos (whose name I couldn't remember just now) and to Branson. I wish them luck and good flights.
Et sic ad astra.
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