Petition Calls For Jeff Bezos To Stay In Space After Rocket Voyage

With Jeff Bezos set to make his maiden voyage into space next month, some people are calling for the billionaire to stay there and never return to earth in a petition that has been signed by thousands of individuals.

Bezos, along with his brother Mark Bezos, will board the first flight carrying people on the New Shepard rocket on July 20 for an 11-minute voyage into space.

Bezos announced on June 7 that he would be making the trip to space, saying at the time in an Instagram video, “If you see the Earth from space, it changes you. It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity. It's one Earth”

The Change.org petition, which has been signed by over 39,600 people as of early Monday morning, called for Bezos not to be allowed back on earth. It said, “Billionaire's should not exist...on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter they should stay there.”

A second petition on Change.org called “Petition To Not Allow Jeff Bezos Re-Entry To Earth” has garnered nearly 20,000 signatures.

While the Change.org petitions specifically seemed to target Bezos, showing pictures of the Amazon founder, he is not the only billionaire specifically supporting and heading space programs.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX company sent astronauts to the International Space Station in 2020 and currently has a trip booked with a paying customer, Yusaku Maezawa, around the moon in 2023, NPR reported.

Virgin Group Founder Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is also working towards commercial space flights, which the billionaire plans to be one the first people to travel on, NPR said.

Bezos’ Blue Origin space mission raffled off a seat onboard the reusable suborbital rocket that went for $28 million to an unnamed winner. A fourth person will also be part of the crew.

Photo: AFP / MANDEL NGAN