[HN Gopher] Captain Kirk: Bezos' Blue Origin to Send William Sha...
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Captain Kirk: Bezos' Blue Origin to Send William Shatner into Space
Author : goodcanadian
Score : 50 points
Date : 2021-10-04 15:45 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.co.uk)
| cronix wrote:
| To boldly go where, now, a lot of men and women have gone before.
| AdamHominem wrote:
| "Very high altitude"
| kgwxd wrote:
| The penultimate frontier.
| hulitu wrote:
| Well, if there was a penultimate supper, why wouldn't be a
| penultimate frontier ?
| flerchin wrote:
| The risk/reward doesn't seem to make sense for Bezos. If Shatner
| dies, it'll be the end of their program. If he lives, maybe a
| marginal benefit? The man is 90, and his health is not stellar.
| He legit could die of anything.
| mataug wrote:
| > The risk/reward doesn't seem to make sense for Bezos. If
| Shatner dies, it'll be the end of their program. If he lives,
| maybe a marginal benefit? The man is 90, and his health is not
| stellar. He legit could die of anything.
|
| The whole space tourism idea has the same issue, if a rich
| billionaire, regardless of health condition, dies then Blue
| origin would have the same problem.
|
| This seems on the surface to be a PR stunt to boost Bezos
| massive ego.
| Barrin92 wrote:
| tbf given that it's Shatner you could morbidly enough spin it
| as a "Captain Kirk at last goes home, cultural sci-fi icon dies
| in space" thing, I have no doubt they would be rolling with
| that angle
| AdamHominem wrote:
| Neither Virgin nor Blue Origin actually go into orbit or even
| "space", and both have a trash safety culture and a not-much-
| better record:
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/science/jeff-bezos-blue-o...
|
| https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-red-warning-lig...
|
| This is obviously a PR stunt, but the point of the stunt it to
| get people to think Blue Origin = "space"
| Maursault wrote:
| The risk vs. reward doesn't quite make sense for very nearly
| all ambitions of manned space exploration. But this isn't space
| exploration, it is _civilians in space_ , which always was and
| always will be a dumb idea. Though 7 died in the Challenger
| disaster, 6 were astronauts, and 4 of those were military.
| They, and the 7 astronauts lost in the Columbia disaster, knew
| and understood the risks of space flight. Christa McAuliffe was
| neither an astronaut nor had a military career. Of all the
| mistakes NASA has made, the worst of them was killing a school
| teacher. Blue Origin and SpaceX have some astoundingly bad
| ideas specifically regarding civilians in space. There may be a
| compelling demand for it, but that doesn't make it moral or
| rational. I rate putting civilians in space on par with selling
| cocaine, except cocaine, as dangerous as it is, is not nearly
| as dangerous as space flight.
| mindfulplay wrote:
| Reminds me of an old Norm MacDonald joke: "Say what you will
| of Elon Musk, but with his new plan to send humans to Mars,
| nobody is a more creative... serial killer."
| Hokusai wrote:
| "Bezos's Blue Origin hit headlines in recent days after 21
| current and former employees claimed it had ignored safety
| concerns to gain an advantage in the space race, and complained
| of a culture of sexism."
|
| That seems more like news instead of PR.
| ourmandave wrote:
| Is Elon countering with the guy who made the Kessel run in less
| than 12 parsecs?
| hibby wrote:
| Bezos if you kill Shatner so many people are going to be furious
| whymauri wrote:
| Bezos is a huge Trek fan, so he'd be equally mortified is my
| guess.
| lloydgrossman wrote:
| I'm not sure he's quite understood the economics of the 24th
| century.
| justwalt wrote:
| I'm sure Bezos would feel bad for anyone's death in this
| case.
| IIAOPSW wrote:
| Guess it's too late for Bowie to have the "Major Tom" ending.
| tecleandor wrote:
| Seems like it'll be "Rocket Man" instead.
|
| https://youtu.be/lul-Y8vSr0I
| robomartin wrote:
| My take is a little bit different from what I've read so far.
| SpaceX just completed a truly history all-civilian, all-non-
| astronaut, three day orbital flight at an altitude above the ISS.
| SpaceX also secured Artemis mission contracts. They go to space
| all the time and continue to optimize their reusable orbital-
| class systems.
|
| the Blue Origin and Virgin offerings are not even in the same
| class. And Blue Origin/Bezos is struggling to remain relevant. I
| see the Shatner thing purely as a publicity stunt. I also see it
| as having no real value whatsoever. Just my opinion.
|
| On top of that, they raised over $200MM for St. Jude's Children's
| Hospital.
|
| The SpaceX Netflix documentary on the Inspiration4 mission is
| worth watching.
|
| Here's the flight's website:
|
| https://inspiration4.com/
| hunterb123 wrote:
| That's a spot on summary.
| lapetitejort wrote:
| Not to be outdone, Elon announces plans to launch Shatner across
| the hood of a Tesla Model X.
|
| Wait, wrong show...
| sigzero wrote:
| "I've giv'n her all she's got captain, an' I canna give her no
| more."
| tomschlick wrote:
| Alternative Title: Desperate Billionaire plans to launch beloved
| actor slightly past the definition of space in oddly shaped
| rocket in attempt to stay relevant
| daveslash wrote:
| From the article _" Reports in 2013 said he had turned down Sir
| Richard Branson's offer to fly him into space with Virgin
| Galactic"_ and _" Shatner has a fear of flying"_
|
| I just feel the need to point out: Maybe Shatner feels safer on
| Blue Origin because the Virgin Galactic craft have wings, whereas
| Blue Origin craft don't?
|
| Edit: There can't be " _a man! on! the wing!_ " if there's no
| wing. ;-)
|
| [ _I 'll show myself out..._]
| TMWNN wrote:
| Given Shatner's prior comments on the subject, it's obvious
| that Bezos is paying Shatner a _lot_ of money to be able to
| advertise that Captain Kirk flew on a Blue Origin rocket.
| Definitely the sort of thing that a competitor that knows that
| it is behind and is willing to do /pay anything to get ahead
| would do.
| daveslash wrote:
| You are, of course, correct. In fact, the article even states
| that explicitly. My comment was a [too?] subtle snarky
| reference to a famous 1963 episode of the Twilight Zone
| starring Shatner, in which there was _" a man on the wing!"_.
| "Nightmare at 20,000 ft"
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXHKDb0CNjA
| dehrmann wrote:
| Shatner does seem to always want to make a buck, but at 90,
| with all those years of conventions, meet and greets, and
| sweet TJ Hooker royalty checks, doesn't he have enough money?
| afavour wrote:
| He has three kids, presumably a good few grandkids by now.
| Not sure how morbid his outlook is but if I were 90 I might
| look at this as an opportunity to make an even bigger pile
| of cash I can pass down to my descendants... I'm going out
| soon anyway, so why not?
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| Exactly. Live and you pad your pockets. Die and you pad
| your heirs pockets. You were already 90 in medium-poor
| health anyway and not many people get a chance to go to
| space in any capacity. Having "fabulously wealthy
| entertainer and space tourist" on your gravestone is
| better than just "fabulously wealthy entertainer". All
| the upsides are still there but the risk side of the
| equation is much lower at 90 than at 80.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| Shatner probably made more from his Priceline.com
| endorsement than the entire rest of his career combined.
| mytailorisrich wrote:
| > _" Shatner has a fear of flying"_
|
| I immediately thought of the Twilight Zone [1]
|
| [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734600/
| JasonFruit wrote:
| But will he get to say, "Engage"?
| lapetitejort wrote:
| That is Captain Jean-Luc Picard's phrase [0]. Kirk usual say
| "Take us out, Mr Sulu."
|
| 0: https://screenrant.com/star-trek-captains-engage-picard-
| pike...
| JasonFruit wrote:
| That was the joke, yes.
| canadianfella wrote:
| What was the joke? Getting the wrong catchphrase?
| orionblastar wrote:
| Well Shatner did promote other products like the Commodore
| VIC-20: https://youtu.be/UK9VU1aJvTI
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