Space Plane Crash October 31, 2014

I encountered the view that the Virgin Galactic crash here in Southern California is exemplary of the rapacious profiteering to offer rich sons of bitches expensive rides, and what a waste of resources, etc. etc.

I confess to being unsympathetic with this view. Sure, there is an element of pandering to celebrities, etc. But the test pilot who was killed, and even Branson's entire enterprise, are not, primarily, doing this as a way of pandering to celebrities or just as a way to make money. They are, in fact, motivated by the desire to promote development of space access technology. Access to space will eventually be crucial to the progress of human civilization, and we should not be so short sighted as to dismiss it because at times it serves purposes less noble.