In the summer of 2021, three billionaires – Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Jared Isaacson – made history as they blasted off into space on their own privately funded spaceflights. In her essay, astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz analyzes the implications of this new chapter in space exploration. Walkowicz suggests these billionaire-funded launches reflect current inequities here on earth, including rising income inequality exacerbated by the pandemic.
- In her first paragraph, Walkowicz introduces the “they say” argument her essay responds to. What strategies from Chapter 1 does she use to present this argument? Summarize her response to this “they say” argument using a template from Chapter 2.
- Walkowicz is interested in making space exploration “more accessible in a meaningful sense.” What does she mean by this? What groups of people have been historically underrepresented in NASA spaceflight? What problems does Walkowicz see in how people are selected to participate in billionaire-funded space flights, like Jared Isaacman’s Inspiration4?
- Walkowicz uses the first person a few times in her essay. Locate one instance where you see her using “I.” Why do you think she decided to use the first person here? How does this choice affect her tone and her argument? Read this short biography of Walkowicz. How does knowing her background affect how you read and respond to her essay?
- Another voice in this conversation is Megan McArdle, who explains the benefits of billionaire-funded spaceflights. Read her op-ed. What is one important point McArdle and Walkowicz agree on? What is one significant disagreement you notice between their arguments? Enter the conversation by responding to their arguments using a template from Chapter 4.
They Say I Blog 
In response to question three on the use of the first person singular pronoun “I” in this article.
She used “I” after listing the records that have been set by civilian space flights. She was using this as an opportunity to talk more openly about her personal experience and thoughts on the individuals who where going. She used the first person plural possessive “our” at least once also. She was attempting to be more personal and personable throughout this entire article to pull at emotions to disarm readers causing them to be more likely to agree with her arguments.
Reading her biography made little difference in how I would respond to her essay. Yes she is educated, but this piece was intended to be an opinion piece. While her facts were more than likely correct, she clearly had an axe to grind. Her opinion as an astronomer in this piece matters very little. She could have just as easily been an economist or engineer. The reason for this is that the piece is more about societal injustice and inequality than about space itself or even space travel.
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For feedback to question two on “more accessible in a meaningful sense.”
Walkowicz states, that space exploration needs to be “more accessible in a meaningful sense.”She believes that people like Jared Isaacman, a billionaire, control our hope for “average” people within space explorations. Multiple times she compared Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to Jarod. She gave an example of their beginning stories and how all these billionaires’ stories started out the same. Walkowics believes that the participant selected and application process is faulty. The individuals that are chosen to be astronauts tend to be extremely privileged people. She wrapped up her thought about our extremely privileged astronauts by mentioning one of Jarod’s favorite personal hobbies is to fly jets for fun.
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I love how she exposes the elite not caring about the lower or poor people by not bothering to offer opportunity we cannot afford.
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Walkowicz is interested in making space exploration “more accessible in a meaningful sense.” What does she mean by this? What groups of people have been historically underrepresented in NASA spaceflight? What problems does Walkowicz see in how people are selected to participate in billionaire-funded space flights, like Jared Isaacman’s Inspiration4?
What Walkowicz means by this is the rich have to help support the poor. The rich control the process of “average” people in explorations. Some people that have been brought up in this topic is Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. They have been compared to Jarod multiple times in this article. Throughout this article these billionaires stories have been shared. The author believes the process of the people selected for the program is unfair. The people who are selected, the majority is very privileged people.
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In response to question two, Walkowicz says “More accessible in a meaningful sense.” When she says this quote, she means that eventually, when prices go down more people will be able to afford to do these trips and not just the wealthy. People who have been underrepresented are minorities because they weren’t treated with the same respect. A problem with the billionaire-funded space flights is that they are “wealthy, able-bodied, cisgender white men”(Walkowicz).
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To answer question 3, In the sixth paragraph she uses the first person view to show her own personal connection and feelings with the crew memebers and their space flight. This shows a more personal side of her and how she connects to it. After understanding her background I trust her to be a credible source because she has liable information and works in the astronomy field.
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The part were you talking about the face few barriers are mostly wealthy white men, I think that’s very interesting and true.
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This was a opinion report. I agree that space is more reachable but is it really. Most just dream of space and yes none test pilots went to space, but you have to accomplish great things to get a chance. That’s not life as we know it. It was intreasting in what was said though.
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To answer question #2, I believe she means as in more accessible to the public. One of her main points is how going to space is only achievable through obtaining a vast amount of wealth, which isolates a majority of the Population. A group of people who have been historically underrepresented in NASA Spaceflight would have to be women in general. As there are certain requirements to obtaining such goal,”[As] astronauts were also required to have been military test pilots, which effectively barred women from the job.”, this ultimately cuts off the positions solely to men. One of the main problems Walkowicz has in how people are selected to participate in billionaire-funded space flights is how,”[It] was an opaque mixture of money, luck, competition and Isaacman’s whim.” Where as the traditional process is thoroughly open to anyone. Isaacman’s example plays a crucial role as the way his roles were carried out, will most likely have the same outcome for other billionaires choosing who goes to space.
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Lucianne Walkowicz , in her opinion piece, Don’t Count on Billionaires to Get Humanity into Space, argues that space travel wouldn’t be more accessible in a meaningful sense. The way I think of it is when she said “ in which “anyone” could go to space.” Which also more to add to that point is that She believes it’s becoming more accessible but to only those who have lots of money because of the way the flights are funded which are all privately funded which “ are making space more “accessible.” “. The way the author uses “they say” is by giving us all the key details to the way the space flight had been all put together from the details of how all the astronauts came to be on the same flight. Overall the author’s point is to show and give us different details to get her point across as why billionaires in space is something that the “normal public” wouldn’t ever be able to experience. Which comes back to the point that space travel wouldn’t be more accessible in a meaningful sense.
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Question 2:
“more accessible in a meaningful sense.”
In the article, Walkowicz mentions that space exploration needs to be “more accessible in a meaningful sense.” To explain her statement, Walkowicz strongly believes that individuals who are similar to Jared Isaacman (billionaire) control the hope of the “average” people within exploring space and having the privilege to go. In essence, the group of people who have been underrepresented in NASA space flight are those of lower class/less knowledgeable. Walkowicz compares Musk and Bezos to Jared Isaacman numerous times, and gives an example of their own stories of starting out to become the people that they are today (how billionaires’ stories started out the same way). Walkowicz makes clear that she believes the selections of participants and the application process for this trip to space is not considered correctly/unfair. It is clear to note that the individuals who were and are chosen to be astronauts are typically/often the most privileged set of individuals. Thus, the application process and the selection of people in general for the process of going to space is faulty and unfair, noting that the only people who get to participate in this trip are the wealthy.
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Walkowicz is interested in making space exploration “more accessible in a meaningful sense.” What does she mean by this? What groups of people have been historically underrepresented in NASA spaceflight? What problems does Walkowicz see in how people are selected to participate in billionaire-funded space flights, like Jared Isaacman’s Inspiration4?
What Walkowicz means by “more accessible in a meaningful sense” is that lower class people will be able to afford this trip as well. The groups that have been historically underrepresented in the NASA spaceflight are the minorities such as Hispanics, African Americans, and Native Americans. The problems that Walkowicz see when people that are going participate in the flight program will be “wealthy, able-bodied, cisgender white men” (Walkowicz).
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Hello, Jennifer,
I particularly disagree with how you mention,”Thats not life as we know it.” It is unreasonable to assume hard work does not pay off as a great majority of life goals can be accomplished through hard work, determination, and ambition.
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Hello, Jennifer,
I particularly disagree with how you mention,”Thats not life as we know it.” It is unreasonable to assume hard work does not pay off as a great majority of life goals can be accomplished through hard work, determination, and ambition.
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Hello, Manuel I totally agree with your post, especially in the parts of how going to space would only be possible when having a large amount of wealth under your name, because it can cost in the upwards of millions which not your average person has that type of money to spend on going to space. Overall it was a very good response while also using the different techniques we learned the past weeks.
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@Jennifer
Hello, I disagree with how you mention, “That’s not life as we know it.” It is extremely ignorant to assume that working hard does not pay off in the end. Various life goals can be accomplished with ambition and determination for what one is aiming to achieve.
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Hi Lucianne,
I disagree on how space would be more meaningful, though based off of the article, the whole aspect of meaningful was contradicting as only wealthy people are able to achieve this goal.
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This was a opinion report. I agree that space is more reachable but is it really. Most just dream of space and yes none test pilots went to space, but you have to accomplish great things to get a chance. That’s not life as we know it. It was intreasting in what was said though.
Hello Jennifer,
I very much disagree with you. Such as “That’s not life as we know it.” It is very harpy of you to assume that hard work doesn’t pay off. As many life of goals you have to work hard to achieve that goal. Also learn how to spell.
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Hello Damian, I agree with your response to a certain extent because I believe as time comes in the future not all space travel is going to be able to be afforded to the lower class people so for that case I don’t believe it will be more accessible in a meaningful sense.
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@Victor
Question 2 quotes:
One of the main issues Walkowicz has in how people are selected to participate in billionaire-funded space flights is how,”[It] was an opaque mixture of money, luck, competition and Isaacman’s whim.”
Walkowicz argues, “For space to become more accessible in a meaningful sense, we must embrace a broader definition of who can become an astronaut—without requiring that access to space be mediated by people with extreme privilege.” In this quote from the article, Walkowicz emphasizes that there needs to be more equal in the selection process of individuals who get to participate in the trip.
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Hi Jason,
I dot understand how having an experienced background, does not add character or value. This plays in with ethos, as credibility is a major aspect to opinion.
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Answer to question number 1. The strategies that Walkowicz uses form chapter 1 are that she summarized the information that “they say” and she explains it a little further. In her essay “Don’t Count on Billionaires to Get Humanity into Space” Walkowicz advocates that the massage form inspiration4 was not taken because “Onboard Inspiration4 were four people, none of whom are a professional astronaut in the traditional sense.” Which this takes out opportunity of people that are actually professionals to go to space.
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Hello Victor, I totally agree with you because it is true that billionaires are sometimes the ones that are making the average people lose hope especially when it comes to space travel because to go to space it takes lots of funding and billionaires have it easier because they themselves are also able to find it so it’s easier for them than the average person.
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To answer question 3, In the sixth paragraph she uses the first person view to show her own personal connection and feelings with the crew memebers and their space flight. This shows a more personal side of her and how she connects to it. After understanding her background I trust her to be a credible source because she has liable information and works in the astronomy field.
@ Ryan
Ryan I very much agree with you. Such as you said “This shows a more personal side of her and how she connects to it” (Ryan). I also trust her because she has a credible source and she using very liable information.
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@Jason,
Hello Jason, it is incomprehensible by one individual having an experienced background does not add character or value to one’s opinion. Moreover, ethos plays a vital role as credibility is a major element to one’s statement.
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@Lucianne,
Hello, I strongly disagree on how space would be more meaningful, the whole aspect of the article (meaningful) was contradicting because only wealthy people are able to achieve this goal.
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Reading her biography made little difference in how I would respond to her essay. Yes she is educated, but this piece was intended to be an opinion piece. While her facts were more than likely correct, she clearly had an axe to grind. Her opinion as an astronomer in this piece matters very little. She could have just as easily been an economist or engineer. The reason for this is that the piece is more about societal injustice and inequality than about space itself or even space travel.
@ Jason
You clearly don’t know what your’re talking about. She has a background and she does know what she is talking about. You’re clearly delusional.
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In response to question #3
Walkowicz uses the first person in paragraph 6. For example, she writes “Individually, I am particularly thrilled that Proctor and Funk have achieved their lifelong dreams of going to space, which they have worked many hard years to achieve. Despite my critiques, the launch was definitely affecting on an emotional level: my husband and I watched it together, and though I have seen a number of launches in my life, including those carrying precious cargo I’d worked on, seeing a launch carrying someone I know—Dr. Proctor—into orbit was an entirely different cocktail of joy and trepidation. She decides to use the first person in this part of the paragraph because she knows one of the individuals who were on the spaceflight, it brought her joy to see this person accomplish a dream of theirs.
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Lucianne Walkowics starts the article by informing the reader about the Inspiration4 recent achievement of being the first privately funded space flight. Walkowics then questions the main takeaway of the Inspiration4 that anyone can now go to space. I don’t disagree with Walkowics questioning of the Inspiration4 take away however Walkowics then deviates from her message and consumes a large portion of the article starting another conversation about social justice and inequality. I personally believe even though this article is an opinion piece including a conversation about social justice in a space article should never be done. These topics are two entirely different subjects and have little to no correlation and only take away from the original topic of space accessibility. If Walkowics would have decided to not talk so extensively about social justice she could have gone into greater detail on why she disagrees with Inspiration4 take away thus strengthening the article’s original argument.
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a few days ago, I wrote an essay about the decline of the American middle class. I talked about the huge gap between the rich and the poor in American society. The wealth owned by billionaires is staggering, with the top 1% of Americans owning more than 60% of middle-class American households. Not only that, but while the middle class pays taxes honestly, billionaires can avoid taxes in a variety of ways. I think this is why the gap between rich and poor and class solidification is so big in America. The author Lucianne mentions that billionaires started with nothing; many of them were born into wealthy families, this reminds me of the Chinese billionaire, Ma Huateng, the CEO of Tencent. In the initial stages of the social software QQ, Ma personally went to major universities to promote it because the number of users was extremely small. Finally, Under Ma’s insistence, today’s Tencent empire was achieved. His success has inspired countless young people in China who have entrepreneurial dreams. However, Ma’s success is greatly related to his family background. Ma’s father was the General Manager of the Finance Department of Shenzhen Shipping Corporation and the Deputy Commander of Shenzhen Yantian Port Construction Command. The most direct help he gave to his son, Ma Huateng, was to provide him with eight computers when he graduated in 1988, which no ordinary family could afford at that time. In addition, Ma’s father drove a Mercedes-Benz to his son’s company to help him with the books when Tencent was established. It can be said that Ma’s family was super-rich in China at that time. Of course, this is not to deny ma’s excellence, nor does it mean that the poor can’t start from scratch, but the probability is very low.
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