“Best Day Ever” were the first words that came from multi-billionaire, Jeff Bezos, as he landed back on Earth after being launched into space on his own rocket. Bezos has had a back and forth battle over the years with one of his equals, Elon Musk, who also has been undoubtedly working toward perfecting the technicalities of space travel. Slightly beating out his competition, the Amazon founder spent a total of 10 minutes in space while being able to experience one of humanity’s most curious feelings of zero gravity. The 57-year-old corporate genius was shot 66 miles into the sky, without breaking the Earth’s atmosphere, and spent approximately $5.5 billion throughout his journey to make this once-in-a-lifetime trip possible.
While this specific gesture was intended to give normal civilians hope and inspiration that they can accomplish anything they set their minds to, some people are seeing his action in a more unintentional, negative light. Going by the name New Shepard, Bezos took off in the rocket on Tuesday, July 20, 2021, along with his brother Mark Bezos, Oliver Daemen, and Wally Funk; the oldest recorded individual to experience a real space flight at 82 years old. As people all across the world watched him achieve this monumental milestone for humanity, he has still been receiving negative feedback from critics as they have expressed their opinions on how the business icon should have spent his $5 billion.
In hopes to please the unpleasable, as soon as Bezos landed he announced that he will be donating $200 million in “courage and civility awards.” The money was cut in half between chef José Andrés and entrepreneur and spokesperson Van Jones as they are said to donate the money to select nonprofit organizations and charities of their choice. This still has not changed the feedback he has been receiving from his ‘haters’ who are simply not fond of the fact that the multi-billionaire is able to have such expensive hobbies.
Bezos interacted with a CNN reporter before the flight took off in which he released the statement, “those critics were mostly right,” when discussing the fact that he should not have spent as many billions of dollars as he did. While agreeing with some of what the critics had to say, the corporate shark still went on to defend his “over a decade-long space flight project” by reminding people that, “we have lots of problems here on Earth and we have to work on those in order to pursue a longer life here.” It is clear that even though he won the ‘space race’ against Elon Musk, he will not be slowing down with his future plans.