Everyone's Gone to the Moon

Space,the final frontier… There are many interesting things about space flight. The sadly romanticized notion of the frontier, despite my having seen every episode of every iteration of Star Trek, is not one of them. Watching Neil Armstrong step onto the surface of the moon was thrilling. Watching two grown men spend obscene amounts of money to see who can go higher for longer, or whose looks more like a phallus, might be interesting– to ten-year-olds. For most adults, the primary challenge after this week’s rocket men debacle is to identify what is most offensive about these silly exploits. Because I can’t make up my mind, I’ve put together the following list and ask you to consider which one you think is the worst. Ties are acceptable, and feel free to add items that offend you:

1)    Whatever happened to paying taxes?

2)    How about altruism or charity? (Bezos could take a few pointers from his ex.)

3)    When is enough, enough?

4)    There are so many more important things to spend money on right now.

5)    All those folks who work for you, what are they paid? What kind of benefits do they get?

6)    Rocket fuel creates a huge carbon footprint.

7)    Embarrassing lack of humility. Embarrassing everything come to think of it.

8)    Denigrates science– think about it.

9)    The media reports this nonsense, and I am writing about it.

For now, the FAA gets the last laugh, or small chuckle, by changing the definition of astronaut to exclude Bezos and Branson.

Let’s give the late, great David Bowie the last word.

With love from planet Earth, which I hope we figure out how to save,

Jessica, Esther and Larry