NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE

S
o, first Richard Branson and now Jeff Bezos have made their quick joyrides into space (or its neighborhood: in Branson’s case, it depends on whom you ask) and, critically, back. The flights were a victory lap of sorts for science, human ingenuity, and immense entrepreneurial drive. Not everyone was pleased.

Predictably, some malcontents made an appearance in the Guardian, where in one article (“How the billionaire space race could be one giant leap for pollution”) concerns were raised about the effect of increased spaceflight on, in various ways, the atmosphere and, inevitably, the climate. Justified scientific caution? To an extent. As

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