Allahpundit has a definite point about the Reusable Rocket Race going on right now:
Gotta say, in the long list of ways, salutary and otherwise, in which spectacularly rich people have attempted to one-up each other historically, a race between [Elon] Musk, [Jeff] Bezos and whoever else to normalize space travel must rank pretty high.
For one thing, we’re going to get something useful out of this grudge match. Possibly several useful things, since Musk and Bezos are working on similar but not identical concepts. Also: they’re giving the money to a class of people (aerospace engineers) whom I like*. So, you know, win-win and we should all egg on Bezos and Musk to keep upstaging each other.
Moe Lane
*No, my wife isn’t in on this particular contest. But she could be, so I suppose full disclosure, and all that.
People who expect results putting a lot of their own money into scientific and technical research? What’s not to like?
… that we’re still paying for NASA’s mission, whatever it is this week?
.
Mew
I think the mission this week is to improve the fashion sense of all rocket scientists.