Humble Bookstore Owner Goes to Space for Our Sins

[MagicManICT]

They're "passengers" not astronauts imo

Flying in an airplane doesn't make you a pilot

Well, you're a sailor whether you're piloting a boat or not. At least, as long as you are a part of the crew.

[Jalpha]

I am quite positive that there is a training regime and certification process which defines individuals as astronauts. Actuallly leaving orbit or passing some arbitrary, imaginary boundary in the atmosphere of our planet is and should be completely irrelevant to the title. Any individual passing such imaginary boundaries should be entitled to the right to wear the wings which signify such status.

What truly impresses me is the brave pioneers who have left the comfort and safety of our magnetosphere. The only feat which any of our species have thusfar completed which surpasses such an experience would be setting foot on another body of orbital mass.

I will get around to singing Jeff his due praises in time I am sure. However his glans-shuttle is not the most impressive of his proposed projects from my perspective. I have a lot of respect for other egotistical men like myself. Jeff is a big fish in a small pond and there is little need for me to help him raise his profile.

[MagicManICT]

I will get around to singing Jeff his due praises in time I am sure.

Don't get me wrong from my earlier statement. The man deserves great respect for having the vision to start this venture and the willpower to follow it through. I don't have much respect for how he got there and how he's led his company, and it's hard to disentangle the two.

[azrid]

The road to space is paved by men who have to piss themselves or pee in a bottle.
Could be worse.

[mvgulik]

> The man deserves great respect for having the vision to start this venture and the willpower to follow it through.

Meh.

With enough money one can just buy one's way into anything. The only thing needed is guts, which he has plenty (But so do criminals in a way ...).

I doubt he was the one that was the first to come up with this "build your own rocket system for space tourism purposes" , or that he was the first that started to actually work on it for real.
If this is true (and I truly hope it is). It see it just as a mere copy-cat action, by someone with the cash to do so, in an attempt to not miss out on the future money boat.

[MagicManICT]

I doubt he was the one that was the first to come up with this "build your own rocket system for space tourism purposes" , or that he was the first that started to actually work on it for real.

For that, you could say folks like Robert Heinlein, Lester Del Rey, etc came up with the idea, or if you wanted to go back earlier, even Jules Verne. (One might go back even further than that, but I'm drawing a bit of a blank right now on what I might say on the matter.)

Still a different thing for some fictional novelist to express an idea, and another to see it through to reality.

For that matter, one can say Roddenberry came up with the idea of the tablet computer; the Ancient Greek writer that came up with story of Icarus was the inventor of man flying, etc etc.

[Jalpha]

I don't have much respect for how he got there and how he's led his company, and it's hard to disentangle the two.

As someone who has spent their entire life surrounded by nothing but base humans who struggled to corrupt me it is very difficult to muster any sympathy for them. I'm almost totally sure there are no good people left. I mean if he is treating others poorly it's basically a victimless crime.

[jordancoles]

I don't have much respect for how he got there and how he's led his company, and it's hard to disentangle the two.

As someone who has spent their entire life surrounded by nothing but base humans who struggled to corrupt me it is very difficult to muster any sympathy for them. I'm almost totally sure there are no good people left. I mean if he is treating others poorly it's basically a victimless crime.

Are these delusions of grandeur, or are you just trolling?

[mvgulik]

I probably should have written:

I doubt he was the one that was the first to come up with this "build your own rocket system for space tourism purposes" for real in a not fictional sense, or that he was the first that started to actually work on it for real.

With a bit of work I figure nature/panspermia could be potentially declared the first on both. Although its a bit iffy on the volunteered tourism part, and kinda harsh on its takeoff and landing.