Last Friday, Michael Alsbury, a pilot flying a test run for a Virgin Galactic spaceship, lost his life when the spaceship crashed on its California test site. In addition to the tragedy of Alsbury’s death, this crash could also be an early deathblow to the fledgling space tourism industry. Virigin Galactic has been one of the top contributors to advancing the front of space tourism. While the company and founder, Richard Branson will have some difficult lessons to learn concerning the failed crash, some of which may involve listening to advisers who told them the ship was not ready for testing, perhaps we can all learn a lesson from the unfullfiled hype that the crash has imposed upon those who were excited for the potential of space tourism.
The lesson is that perhaps when there are so many problems in the world-—domestically, nationally, and internationally—the type of money being used for things like space tourism should be spent on spurring innovation to solve problems, rather than distract people from them. A grander example of this that also happens to be space-centered occured in the summer of 1969, when the United States made Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first men to land on the moon. I am recalling this event because at the time of that space launch America was still suffering from racial inequality issues,—despite this, we still spent $23 billion in our pursuit to have a man walk on the moon.
I am all for human achievement and think it is incredible that a man landed on the moon. However, there is also a line that should not be crossed which results in an achievement that goes too far and ends up distracting people from realworld problems. Problems like racial inequality, pay inequality or gender inequality are examples America deals with all of these to this day.
Moreover, I believe it is ridiculous that such large sums of money are more or less squandered on developing enterprises like space travel, when initiatives trying to solve problems in areas such as education, housing development or climate change seem to continuously be cash strapped.
Since I am a freshman in college, I hesitate to tell CEOs such as Richard Branson how to spend the enormous sums of money they have earned or inherited over the years.
Instead, I would like to implore those who do not already to at least consider funding initiatives which actually seek to counter the world’s problems, so that everyone is affected positively,—not just themselves, their stockholders and those who will actually be able to afford things like space travel.
Henry is a fresman opinion columnist for The Daily Cardinal. Do you agree with his assessment of funding space tourism? Are there any points he may have overlooked? Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
