SpaceX launches 4 people, including a billionaire, on the most ambitious private human spaceflight yet
Business InsiderSep 10
SpaceX Launches Billionaire for First Private Spacewalk
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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 Facts
SpaceX on Tuesday launched Jared Isaacman, the fintech billionaire commander and funder of the Polaris Dawn mission, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first-ever private spacewalk.
Isaacman, accompanied by a retired military fighter pilot and two SpaceX engineers, was lifted off in a SpaceX Falcon 9 spacecraft. Their spacewalk is scheduled for Thursday, midway through the five-day mission.
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.
