I don't think anyone here would dispute the importance of always reaching beyond as a species. Ultimately, however, these billionaires are not contributing to

I don't think anyone here would dispute the importance of always reaching beyond as a species. Ultimately, however, these billionaires are not contributing to reaching beyond. We've been to space before -- in fact, the first space pioneers went further into space than any of these billionaires. Over half a century ago. Their money would have been better spent on putting together new space telescopes or probes to look further afield, actually reaching for what's next, rather than reaching for familiar ground and taking themselves to the edge of the Earth's atmosphere -- to say nothing of the fact that it was largely for the sake of PR/spectacle. Musk less so -- as another poster has said, SpaceX seems well-intended and useful.