Branson's space flight
Stu News Laguna July 13, 2021
The media is having a field day pitting billionaires Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk against each other. Their egos notwithstanding, we have much to learn about space. If anyone can help teach us, it’s them. I hope you’ll find my letter of interest.
About Branson's historic journey into space
When I was growing up in the 1950s, virtually every one of my elementary school classmates knew who Orville and Wilbur Wright were and what they accomplished. A decade later, after astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the Moon in 1969, he probably became the most famous person on Earth.
Now that Sir Richard Branson and his team have become the first civilians to successfully fly into space, the world is on the cusp of another breakthrough for humankind. The plane that the Wright Brothers built in 1903 flew a mere 120 feet. Sixty-six years later, Apollo 11 flew 238,900 miles before it reached the Moon. Thanks to Branson's historic 50-mile high flight on Sunday, I predict the trajectory of commercial space travel is going to prove limitless.
I wonder who will be the first private citizen in Laguna to fly into space?
Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Beach
Denny, I don't think any of these three really have contributed much to the science, or to the knowledge of "space flight". They've spent billions (hundreds of millions of which came out of taxpayers' pockets) using existing technology to do 'tricks' - landing a tiny launch rocket on a platform at sea is about the only thing new that happened. Sir Richard flew to 53 miles above the earth (the atmosphere continues another 6,000 miles) in a craft based on Burt Rutan's decades old design. Nothing any of these three (Branson, Musk, Bezos) have done gets us any closer to establishing viable colonies in space. We already know how to get to Mars and how long it will take. NASA just can't justify or fund it. For good reason - space wants to kill us, and will, and as of now we can't get past that fact. Better that these 3 use their money & influence to establish a viable, sustainable life on THIS planet. The flight was a prime example of Rich Boys' Toy wars, taken to an absurd level. In my opinion, anyway...