THE PUBLIC LAMENT OF JEFF BEZOS’ 2021 SPACE JAUNTS

Abstract

The world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos (founder of the Amazon.com and Blue Origin companies) jaunted into space during 2121 aboard a small space capsule and he attracted huge public backlash because of it. This backlash was presented as ‘confused’ and ‘muddled’ by many in the space industry. However, after collecting and examining this public backlash playing out in the media, the author finds the social and media criticism of Jeff Bezos’ space jaunts to be highly nuanced societal reflections of what is positive and negative when it comes to commercial space flight and what is positive and negative about the long-term dreams of space explorers. In this paper, these social reflections of Bezos’s space adventures are assembled together and interpreted with contextual insights so that those within the space industry can see their sense and logic in terms that go beyond the narrow aims of the space industry itself.