Neil deGrasse Tyson Defends Billionaire Space Race: ‘This Is America’
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson defended private space exploration Monday amid the criticism that’s been lobbed at billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson for their forays into space. Critics say that there are plenty of problems on Earth that need to be addressed, and that billionaires using some of their fortunes (and in some cases, taxpayer dollars) on going to space is a waste of resources.
Tyson pushed back on those claims. “There has been inequality and hunger, and [the] poor, and racism, and all these problems,” he told Ari Melber. “All that long predates anybody’s attempt to fly in space, so to now look at success in space launches and say, ‘Because we’re doing that is why we have not solved the rest of these problems,’ is kind of a false equivalence.”
Bezos is set to be launched into space on Tuesday on a rocket owned by Blue Origin, the aeronautics company he founded. The flight is expected to last 11 minutes, with the craft reaching a height of 60 miles above the Earth’s surface. It is the company’s first manned flight. Branson went to space earlier this month aboard a rocket owned by his aeronautics company, Virgin Galactic.
“It becomes just fast headlines,” said Tyson of the criticism. “‘We’re going to the moon, but I’m hungry.’ Well, ok. There’s a lot of things we’re doing while you’re hungry, ok, that don’t immediately put food on your plate.”
He elaborated:
We vote every year for representatives to create a budget of things we value, ok? So there’s art. Is art putting food on someone’s plate? No, but it creates an environment where you want to live. We do things because that’s the identity of country we want to create, and we’re wealthy enough. We can do it all. All. So don’t just say, “Why are we spending there when we should be spending there.” Well, let’s spend it in both places. Period.
Tyson pointed out that when people decide to take a vacation, no one tells them they could be feeding the poor instead. “No one is creating that equation,” he said.
He addressed the potential rise of space tourism. “If things go the way they intend, this becomes a choice that you will make going forward,” he said. “You might collect a few vacations’ worth of money to do that, of course. It will cost more than going to Orlando for sure. But I don’t see anything wrong with opening up an entire new business enterprise. This is America. If you don’t think that it should happen that way, that’s a different country.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
