{"id":22709,"date":"2021-06-28T23:20:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T15:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/jeff-bezos-is-flying-his-rocket-to-space-and-over-100k-people-are-asking-him-to-stay-there\/"},"modified":"2021-06-28T23:20:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T15:20:00","slug":"jeff-bezos-is-flying-his-rocket-to-space-and-over-100k-people-are-asking-him-to-stay-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/jeff-bezos-is-flying-his-rocket-to-space-and-over-100k-people-are-asking-him-to-stay-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos is flying his rocket to space, and over 100K people are asking him to stay there"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"img-border featured-image wp-block-image--obfuscated\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=1600\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=320&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=640&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=1024&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=1500&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-attachment-id=\"15061\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/2021\/06\/27\/jeff-who-where-space-ok-cool\/img_0324\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png\" data-orig-size=\"3000,1500\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"Jeff Bezos\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=1024\"><br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jeff Bezos is just a few weeks away from being among the first humans to leave Earth in his New Shepard rocket, and a growing number of people are hoping he won\u2019t be allowed back.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-15040\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Shepard, named after Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, is a sub-orbital rocket that has flown over a dozen successful missions without a crew onboard. The 59-foot tall vehicle launches from Blue Origin\u2019s facility in West Texas where it lands vertically 7.5 minutes later. New Shepard\u2019s capsule separates from the rocket before parachuting back to ground 1.5 minutes after the booster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Amazon\/Blue Origin founder (and his brother) will be on the very first crewed flight of New Shepard on an upcoming mission called NS-16. The mission is currently scheduled to happen on July 20, 2021, a day with importance already:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>On this day 60 years ago, Alan Shepard made history by becoming the first American to fly to space. In the decades since, fewer than 600 astronauts have been to space above the K\u00e1rm\u00e1n Line to see the borderless Earth and the thin limb of our atmosphere. They all say this experience changes them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><cite>Blue Origin<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course you don\u2019t become the wealthiest person on Earth without making a few detractors along the way. <\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"outbrain-ad-label\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script type=\"text\/plain\">\n\t\t\twindow.adSlotsConfig = window.adSlotsConfig || [];<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tadSlotsConfig.push( {\n\t\t\t\tslotID: '\/1049447\/Outbrain',\n\t\t\t\tslotName: 'div-gpt-ad-outbrain-ad-15040',\n\t\t\t\tsizes: [300, 250],\n\t\t\t\tslotPosition: 'mid_article'\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image wp-block-image--obfuscated\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png\" alt=\"Site default logo image\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A petition through change.org to not allow Jeff Bezos to return to Earth has collected over 100,000 signatures ahead of the mission. The ask is simple:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Billionaires should not exist\u2026on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter, they should stay there.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><cite>Ric G, petition creator<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>CNBC<\/em> spoke with the petition creator and his inspiration for the viral petition:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Ric Geiger, 31, an account manager for an automotive supplies wholesaler in Michigan, tells&nbsp;CNBC Make It&nbsp;he started the petition \u201cas a joke\u201d with an initial goal of reaching 150,000 signatures. Geiger says he launched the petition after he saw a similar joke \u201con a meme page on Facebook\u201d that he thought was \u201chysterical,\u201d but when he looked online to see if there was an existing petition, he couldn\u2019t find one. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor me, it started as a joke, because obviously there is no way we can keep Jeff Bezos from re-entering Earth,\u201d Geiger wrote in an email. (Indeed, the petition offers no proposals for how anyone could, realistically, prevent the Amazon billionaire from returning from his spaceflight, which is set to&nbsp;launch on July 20.) <\/p>\n<p>However, Geiger also felt the initial humor of the petition and its title would ultimately allow him to \u201creach a broader platform\u201d to spread a more serious message about the issue of wealth inequality.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-space-explored-s-take\">Space Explored\u2019s take<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Geiger admits that a funny petition can\u2019t actually keep Jeff Bezos in space, it\u2019s also true of this particular space ship. New Shepard passes the K\u00e0rm\u00e0n line (the widely agreed point at which space begins), but the rocket isn\u2019t designed to go far enough for the payload to not return. Blue Origin is preparing its much more powerful New Glenn rocket for missions far beyond the edges of Earth \u2014 pending customers and engine readiness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As for Bezos taking a joy ride on the spacecraft that his wealth funded, we\u2019re mostly just jealous that we haven\u2019t been invited to be ride along yet. Blue Origin hasn\u2019t released pricing information for paying customers to book seats on future New Shepard space flights, but the MSRP is expected to be many tens of millions of dollars per 12-minute mission. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the likes of Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX providing pathways to space for non-astronauts, the price of entry may one day fall enough to make lesser mere millionaires afford tickets and not just billionaires. All kidding aside, regardless of who sneaks their way onto Blue Origin\u2019s first crewed space flight, we\u2019re encouraged by the progress of private space exploration companies. Better for the billionaires to buy the infrastructure than us scrounging up change from our couch cushions.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image wp-block-image--obfuscated\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png\" alt=\"Site default logo image\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"disclaimer-affiliate\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/08\/unistellar-telescope.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17371\" width=\"750\" height=\"150\"><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeff Bezos is just a few weeks away from being among the first humans to leave Earth in his New Shepard rocket, and a growing number of people are hoping he won\u2019t be allowed back. New Shepard, named after Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, is a sub-orbital rocket that has flown over a dozen successful missions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}