this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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Gates has the money to do both, and more. It’s just sometimes better to let others do it instead— having your own space company means worrying about competition, contracts, and potential profitability. Meanwhile if he wanted, he could hitch a ride on any of their rockets with no effort.
Musk and Bezos also have the money to do both, but they merely elect not to. Perhaps in the future they will, like Gates, begin funneling more of their effort and wealth into altruism to improve their reputations.
I'm an engineer, so my childhood fantasy wasn't to ride on a rocket, it was to invent a rocket. I did think it would be cool to explore space, but not as a test pilot or a tourist. To be honest, I don't think I'd go on one of those tourist flights even if it was free - I feel no urge to risk my life just to get a good view of Earth. Being a space colonist would be a different matter - then I'd get to actually use my skills to build stuff.
(The reason I think this is relevant is that a lot of these tech billionaires were originally engineers too, so I guess they also think like this.)