Spaceflight 🚀Jul 6, 2023
#Forbes 📆 Jun 23, 2023 "#Amazon says half of the 3,236 #satellites 🛰️ will be up above us by 📆 2026" - but who will #launch 🚀 them ? 🤔 https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2023/06/23/project-kuiper-how-amazon-will-drape-the-world-in-satellites/

• #BlueOrigin / #NewGlenn : no news / tests yet
• #Ariane 6 is years late (again)
• #ULA's #Vulcan is late, dependent on #BE4 engines
All three will be operative until 2025
7.4%
Microlaunchers
2.9%
SpaceX
36.8%
They need a miracle
52.9%
Poll ended at .
Project Kuiper: How Amazon Will Drape The World In Satellites

Amazon is moving into the low-earth orbit satellite business, and those satellites will be coming thick and fast. Here’s what the company has to say about the project.

Forbes
Show threadRich Stein (he/him)Jul 9, 2023
@spaceflight
#Public benefit? 😂 Bezos could end #paywall on WaPo for less money, with immediate positive #impact. "'We can have thi$ amazing opportunity to $erve the un$erved and the under$erved, who have not had choice$ and option$. But at the same time, we believe that the opportunity is large enough for it to become a good busine$$ for #Amazon. It’s one of those rare opportunitie$ which has a broader #SocialImpact at the same time and makes sense for us to invest in as a company.'”
Show threadSpaceflight 🚀Jul 9, 2023
@RichStein “You get an opportunity when you go into replenishment to upgrade the technology..."
Show threadRich Stein (he/him)Jul 9, 2023

@spaceflight
And charge users for the upgrades? If only Amazon/Bezos/et al. could be trusted to consider public benefits/impacts in every business decision. Amazon would still be a behemoth and Bezos would continue as an uber billionaire. But that's not the libertarian ("regulation and taxes for thee, not for me") billionaire tech bro way.

Article touches on several issues: "Can Jeff Bezos’ Earth Fund Offset Amazon’s Environmental Impact?" https://observer.com/2023/05/jeff-bezos-earth-fund-amazon/

More: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/07/billionaires-should-not-make-up-climate-finance-gaps-says-bezos-earth-fund-head

Can Jeff Bezos’ Earth Fund Offset Amazon’s Environmental Impact?

Amazon's emissions increased by 18 percent in 2021, despite pledging to meet net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.

Observer
Show threadSpaceflight 🚀Jul 9, 2023
@RichStein that's also mentioned in the Guardian article : “I don’t think we should buy into the idea that we’re somehow an alternative to government, because governments have an obligation and they are not living up to it to the extent they should."
Show threadRich Stein (he/him)Jul 9, 2023

@spaceflight
Yes. Impossible to ignore billionaires "doing good," because they control so much wealth, and their presence in philanthropy skews actions (and results). Also difficult to steer or even nudge (see the economic term) them. And governments can use their presence as cover for not doing their part. Complicated for sure. [Follow @p2173 for good insight/research on #philanthropy.)

Billionaires could play by rules, pay taxes and still succeed by many metrics. Sadly, they prefer not to.

Show threadSpaceflight 🚀Jul 9, 2023
@RichStein as already mentioned above, the governments just should do their job https://fortune.com/2022/01/19/100-millionaires-billionaires-sign-letter-more-taxes/
100 millionaires and billionaires signed a letter to pay more taxes—and fear violence if they don’t

"It's taxes or pitchforks," wrote a group calling themselves Patriotic Millionaires.

Fortune
Show threadRich Stein (he/him)Jul 9, 2023
@spaceflight
If only that simple. Also, government is you and me last time I looked.😉
Show threadSpaceflight 🚀
@RichStein Every nation gets the government it deserves https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Government
Government - Wikiquote

Jul 9, 2023 at 5:37pmWeb