SpaceX launches 4 people, including a billionaire, on the most ambitious private human spaceflight yet
Business InsiderSEP 2024
SpaceX Launches Billionaire for First Private Spacewalk
Above: SpaceX's Polaris Dawn Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Launch Complex 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 10, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Image copyright: Joe Raedle/Staff/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
Isaacman is on a daring, risky 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 wealth, but to fulfill his dream of sending people to other worlds. Isaacman has a vision of making life multi-planetary and advancing human spaceflight to be 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.
Establishment-critical narrative
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 the 1,000th person will reach space by Aug. 2034, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
