SpaceX Launches Billionaire for First Private Spacewalk
The Spin
Isaacman is on a daring, riskiest private space mission to lay the ground for high-altitude missions to the moon or Mars. He and his crew will pass through high radiation levels, not for fun or to display their wealth, but to fulfill his dream of sending people to other worlds, making life multi-planetary, and turning human spaceflight more commonplace. This ambition may sound far-fetched to some, but it will create opportunities to do science along the way and push the limits of space travel.
This privately funded space exploration isn't making space more accessible to all; it's a vanity project for billionaires buying their way into space history as amateur astronauts. Spaceflight is difficult, expensive, and dangerous, which means only the ultra-rich can fly, land, and walk in space. The idea of billionaires paying for themselves to go into space isn't just distasteful; it's one giant leap for pollution. The money the wealthy are willing to pour into space tourism could be invested in making life better on our planet.
Metaculus Prediction
There's a 50% chance that that the 1,000th person will reach space by 2100, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
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