The richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, owns an aerospace company called Blue Origin and it will take him into outer space. Bezos is getting inside his own space shuttle, New Shepard, on July 20. But even though he’s about to fulfill his childhood dream, the owner of Amazon won’t be the first billionaire to propel himself above the rest of us.
Soon after his plan become public in June, Richard Branson walked in to say that more than a week before Bezos, he would be going into his own Virgin Galactic VSS Unity for a spaceflight. And on Sunday, he actually did. The 70-year-old won the billionaire space race.
But not everyone is very happy about this rivalry. Or find it inspiring. Writer Jacob Silverman, for example, called it “a tragically wasteful ego contest.” But he’s not alone. Many Twitter users agree with Silverman and have been criticizing the billionaires for being out of touch with reality and the problems we face in this world.