Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, laughs while traveling to India in 2020. (Jeff Bezos via Twitter)
Between an upswing in cartel talks and questions about employee turnover, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a lot to fear here on earth. His plans to go suborbitally next month in a rocket ship built by Blue Origin, another company he founded, could potentially add to the fear – and not just because of the regular risks posed by space travel.
Two petitions urging him to stay in space have garnered more than 100,000 signatures, and the number continues to rise at the rate of one signature per second.
Both petitions were posted on Change.org two weeks ago after Bezos said he and his brother Mark would board Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft for a flight to and from the company’s West Texas spaceport on July 20. Two drivers, yet to be identified, will join them, including the winner of a $ 28 million auction that will benefit Blue Origin’s charitable foundation.
One petition collected more than 90,000 signatures. “Billionaires shouldn’t exist … on earth or in space, but if they choose the latter, they should stay there,” says the petition’s author.
The other petition has garnered more than 21,000 signatures and makes claims that are even more of this world. “This could be our last chance before they activate the 5G microchips and do a mass takeover,” writes the author.
It doesn’t take much to start a petition on Change.org, and given the controversy surrounding Bezos and Amazon, it’s not surprising that his plans to go into space have generated some viral heat.
But both petitions are doomed: while it is possible that the escape could end in tragedy – and some people on Twitterverse perversely wish that result – there is no way the richest person in the world will get stuck on the ultimate frontier . When we talk about suborbital space travel, what goes up definitely comes down again.