So Richard Branson (and couple of other persons) went to space yesterday. Or what a small part of the world calls "space". There is a debate whether the 80km altitude Branson's spacecraft reached is actually considered space or does the space only start at the more widely accepted 100km altitude mark. Anyway, they only spend there a couple of minutes enjoying weightlessness before turning back towards earth.
Another debate is whether there is a point these billionaire's wasting their billions getting up there. Next week Branson is followed by the second man in space on his own private spacecraft. Who ever remembers the seconds, like who stepped on the moon after armstrong anyway? Ok, maybe people remember Buzz Aldrin and Jeff Bezos too. All this while another rich guy is just cheering on these achievements of his rivals while his roadster is already on it's way to the Mars.
Meanwhile on earth people are dying from preventable causes. If only there was some money to put preventing those unnecessary deaths...
Of course it's not that black and white. This nee era of space race will surely bring another wave of technological breakthroughs to make life better here on earth (and perhaps on other planets as well someday). Many of the today's basic technologies we couldn't live without are the fruits of the cold era space race.