Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and currently the world's richest man, is going to space next month with his space start up Blue Origin. Like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX, Blue Origin hopes to one-day offer rides into space to paying customers.
Bezos has announced that he will personally fly aboard the Blue Origin's flagship spacecraft, the New Shepard, alongside his brother and a third person next month. The launch is expected to take place on Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The rocket will take off from Blue Origin's launch site in the Guadalupe Mountains in West Texas, USA.
However, ahead of that launch, an online petition has popped up to keep Bezos from returning to Earth. The petition is available on change.org, and it humorously lays out the reasons why Bezos should not be allowed to return to Earth, citing a number of conspiracy-theory type reasons in what appears to be online trolling at its finest.
"Jeff Bezos is actually Lex Luthor, disguised as the supposed owner of a super successful online retail store. However, he's actually an evil overlord hellbent on global domination. We've known this for years. Jeff has worked with the Epsteins and the Knights Templar, as well as the Free Masons, to gain control over the whole world. He's also in bed with the flat earth deniers; it's the only way they'll allow him to leave the atmosphere. Meanwhile, our government stands by and lets it happen."
The petition hilariously concludes, "This may be our last chance before they enable the 5G microchips and perform a mass takeover."
The petition has been up for a week and currently has over 18,000 signatures.
Another petition titled 'Do not allow Jeff Bezos to return to Earth' that has amassed more than 25,000 signatures states, "Billionaire's should not exist...on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter they should stay there."
Joke petitions aside, if all goes according to plan, Bezos will make his flight on July 20 on New Shepard, a suborbital rocket which means that the entire flight from launch to landing will last around 15 minutes and will take passengers to the outer reaches of the atmosphere, soaring over 60 miles above the Earth.
The New Shepard is designed to autonomously fly six passengers more than 62 miles (100 km) above Earth into suborbital space. That is high enough to experience around ten minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the planet before the pressurised capsule returns to Earth under parachutes.