REPLAY - THE SECOND AGE OF SPACE

Show Page:  https://www.theothersideofmidnight.com/20210724_livingston/

Alternate Listening  

"The Second Space Race" ....

"The battle of the Billionaires!"

Anyway, that's how the headlines have been portraying it ....

But, is that fair?

Thirteen days ago, Richard Branson, well-known British dare-devil billionaire -- accompanied by three fellow passengers, and two pilots -- rocketed fifty-five miles above the Land of Enchantment, just south of me here in New Mexico, in his uniquely-designed Burt Rutan Virgin Galactic "space plane" ... before returning to an historic, graceful landing on the two-mile-long runway of "America's Spaceport."

Nine days later, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, and his own space company, Blue Origin, in the company of three fellow "astronauts" -- including the oldest, and the youngest, humans to ever ventured (if only for a few minutes ...) 66.5 miles above west Texas, followed Branson and his Virgin Galactic passengers into the history books ....

The era of private enterprise "space tourism" had officially begun.

But, does this kind of "space-age barnstorming" really have a future? 

Or is it, as the headlines claimed, only "a clash of egos -- between Earth's richest '0.001 percent?'"

Join me tonight -- and my friend and colleague, space business expert, David Livingston -- and find out.

"The Second Age of Space" has begun ....

Richard C. Hoagland