Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is taking a trip to space on Blue Origin’s first human voyage. Accompanying him on his three-minute tour beyond the atmosphere will be his brother Mark Bezos and a third paying guest.
This piece of news, if slightly bizarre in the manner of a Babylon Bee headline, is hardly surprising. After all, where else does one venture, having attained the pinnacle of earthly, monetary power, if not literally beyond the terrestrial realm? “Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space,” Bezos wrote in the Instagram post in which he announced his plans for the pioneering voyage. Perhaps, having attained the title of the richest man on Earth, Bezos now sees fit to fulfil one of his few unfulfilled dreams.
The Internet may deride Bezos’s grandiose plan of a space expedition for its extravagance or resemblance to a child’s fantasy, but we should applaud his ambition. Indeed, the aspiration to explore space shares the same roots as the human desire for progress that has allowed mankind to prosper from modernization, advancement, and development. It also requires faith in humans’ capability to wield technology constructively and innovatively. The spirit of space expeditions may even resemble that of pioneers venturing across the American Plains, westward, in search of grander beauty.
