Why Prince William Is Calling Out the Billionaire Space Race

Find out why Prince William is royally unimpressed with the space tourism race, spearheaded by billionaires Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk.

By Corinne Heller Oct 14, 2021 3:35 PMTags
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When it comes to billionaires' space tourism race, Prince William is royally unimpressed.

The Duke of Cambridge spoke about the matter in an interview with BBC Newsbeat on Thursday, Oct. 14, three days before the Royal Foundation is set to hand out its first Earthshot Prizes to five winners for their efforts to help the environment.

"We need some of the world's greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live," said William. "That, really, is quite crucial. We need to be focusing on this one rather than giving up and heading out into space to try and think of solutions for the future." 

William made his comments a day after Star Trek actor William Shatner, 90, became the oldest person in space aboard a rocket ship flown by billionaire Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin, which marked the group's second space tourism flight following the founder and Amazon CEO's own trip in July. Days before that, his rival Richard Branson became the first billionaire astronaut. He, Bezos and SpaceX founder Elon Musk are competing to expand commercial space tourism. Bezos' philanthropic effort, the  Bezos Earth Fund, is also a funding partner to the Earthshot Prize.

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When asked if he would like to be a space tourist one day, William, who served more than seven years in the Royal Air Force, said, "I have absolutely no interest in going that high. I'm a pilot, but I'm a helicopter pilot, so I stay reasonably close to the ground. I've been up to 65,000 feet once, in a plane, and that was truly terrifying. And that's high enough."

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William said that while he did "not quite" become weightless during the flight, "the sky is black above you and you can see the curve of the Earth. That's close enough to space for me 'cause you can come back down again."

During the duke's interview on Thursday, he also spoke about the environmental impact of space tourism, saying the carbon footprint of rockets momentarily going into space posed a "fundamental question."

The three billionaires leaders in the space race are involved in environmental efforts. In September, Bezos announced plans for $1 billion in conservation spending in places like the Congo Basin and the Andes, The New York Times reported.

In February, Musk announced he is donating $100 million to fund a competition to find new ways to remove carbon from the air or water, in a bid to help fight climate change, NPR said. And Branson's airline, Virgin Atlantic, signed up to use a technology that will suck carbon-dioxide directly from the north-east sky before locking it away, Energy Voice reported in August. In addition, his Virgin Group has also worked with environmental organizations such as WildAid.