AMAZON is not cleared for takeoff.
Bernie Sanders is hoping to stifle Jeff Bezos’ efforts to score a government contract for his private space travel company, Blue Origin.
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Nasa’s crowded launch schedule is being aided by technologies made in partnership with private space companies.
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s interstellar business, locked up a $3billion dollar deal to build a lunar module for Nasa’s next manned trip to the moon after staving off other companies vying for the contract.
Last summer, Bezos and Blue Origin took Nasa to court to argue they were wrongfully cast aside, which ended up reopening the competition.
Today, a bill making its way through the congressional pipes would grant Bezos and Blue Origin $10billion to build moon landers – Sanders is aiming to cut the provision catered to Bezos.
Politico quoted Sanders saying the measure is “a bailout to Jeff Bezos so that his company Blue Origin can launch a rocket ship to the moon.”
Sanders has used the privatization of space travel as stump material, pushing the narrative that resources are better spent on Earth-bound ventures rather than getting people off the planet.
“If he wants to go to the moon, let him use his own money, not U.S. taxpayers,” Sanders said in the same Politico article.
All in all, it’s likely we’ll soon see humans land on the moon for the first time since the 1970s – whether its by way of SpaceX or Blue Origin is still to be determined.
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The lunar trip is one of many exciting launches booked for the next decade – multiple missions to Venus are on the docket.
Congress will have juggle competing interests as private and public resources intersect in our pursuit of the cosmos.
Sanders has railed against wealth hoarding and frivolous government spending for the entirety of his lengthy career.
The effort to block taxpayer money from going to a billionaire is highly on-brand for the Vermont senator.
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