Bezos-Branson-Musk ‘space race’ sparks criticism over unequal spending

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LOS ANGELES (KABC) – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is scheduled to take off on Tuesday morning aboard his Blue Origin rocket, and it sparks some contention among people who think the money could be better spent on more issues. urgent.

Bezos will ride with his brother Mark Bezos, as well as Wally Funk, 82, who will become the oldest person in space, and Oliver Daemon, 18, who will soon be the youngest person in space.

The launch comes just over a week after billionaire Richard Branson launched his spacecraft from a plane already 50,000 feet in the air. Bezos is expected to go even further into space than Branson, peaking at 62 miles from the Earth’s surface compared to the 53 miles at which Branson’s craft peaked.

But the billionaire space race is prompting public nods.

“There is a lot of need right now in the community,” said Josiah Smith of Burbank. “Man, there are so many more efficient things that can happen with this (the money).”

“I think they should be spending money helping people on this Earth instead of getting out of it,” said a woman from Silver Lake.

It doesn’t help that Bezos and SpaceX founder Elon Musk apparently didn’t pay income tax. And Musk gaudily threw a Tesla into space.

But experts say the recent space race is about more than billionaire kids flexing their financial muscles.

“We should go to the stars,” said Mike Gruntman, professor of astronautics at USC.

Gruntman says the U.S. space program has been the creative birthplace of countless pieces of everyday technology. One of the most popular: GPS.

“The people who complain that the money is going to space instead of other areas are the ones who get lost in malls and use space technology to save them,” Gruntman told Eyewitness News.

Many people also add that billionaires should be able to spend their money however they want. Others see the efforts to expand humanity into space as a source of inspiration.

“This is hope in such a time of uncertainty,” said Dawn Russell of Burbank. “There is something to look forward to, even to distract from, all the craziness going on.”

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