the timing of it happening within a year and a half of itself. it really represents the end of the government s monopoly on human space travel. even though a lot of the contracts that spacex, bezos, and others are going for are government contracts. colonel hatfield, he wants to build a road to space, infrastructure that a few generations from now kids in a dorm room who have some, you know, idea like they would have about the internet today can actually build on that infrastructure and make their idea possible. with reusable space vehicles, that s critical to any kind of road into space. i wonder what your reaction is to that idea overall. well, space up to this point has been fairly sacrosanct just because it s so hard to get to. it takes an entire nation in order to pay for and organize and do the science. so july the 20th is a day of
astronaut chris hadfield. he s also the author of several books, including an astronaut s guide to life on earth and the apollo murders out in october. it is fascinating to hear bezos. whatever you think about how he s spending money and billionaires in space, his vision for what space could potentially be and building the infrastructure for that is a fascinating concept. it s a fascinating concept and what really stands out to me is the timing of all of these private space companies launching humans into space all within about a year and a half of one another after nearly a decade of no humans no americans launching into space from u.s. soil. first you had spacex with those astronauts going up to the international space station. then richard branson s virgin galactic, and now blue origin s new shepard rocket system.
probably would have been easier. but as bezos said earlier in the day, this is scaleable, that when you have bigger rockets, when you have huge payloads, when you re trying to scale this up to build that infrastructure, you need practice, and that s why they re starting this way. how much sense would it make if every time you flew in an airplane you just got rid of it right after a single flight? i mean, that s why what repays bezos and blue origin did with these reusable rockets is so critical because they make space flight more accessible, more affordable. and not just bezos now, you have elon musk doing with actual orbital rockets. i think the thing that stands out, we got to see how this booster land, how slowly it came down, 1 to 2 miles per hour, wild. the capsule itself, while it s hitting almost 5.5gs on the way down, it s landing around 1 or 2 miles an hour as well.