Prince William, who in the fullness of time will be king of England, recently chose to get snarky at billionaires who are building rockets and are sending them to the heavens. Why, he opined in a recent interview, do these rich guys not spend their money solving climate change rather than launching toward the heavens? The sentiment was replete with both ignorance and a lack of self-awareness.
If his highness had troubled himself to do a little research, he would have discovered that some of these wealthy space entrepreneurs are also doing their bit for climate change. SpaceX’s Elon Musk also sells electric cars and rooftop solar power systems. Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos is an investor in a company that promises to, at long last, bring practical fusion energy to the commercial market.
As for lack of self-awareness, it should be noted that the Windsor family is one of the wealthiest in the United Kingdom. How much have they invested in solar panels, wind farms, and carbon capture?
There was a time when the British royals harbored a greater appreciation of people who pushed back the unknown and explored frontiers. Queen Elizabeth (the first one, not the prince’s grandmother) sponsored voyages of discovery (and piracy) that led to the creation of two great nations in North America, the United States, and Canada. Subsequent British monarchs also encouraged the exploration and the settlement of what was then called the New World.
Just over 100 years ago, Arthur C. Clarke was born in Shropshire, England. Through his fiction and nonfiction, not to mention television appearances, he helped popularize the promise of space travel. 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film he developed with Stanley Kubrick, presented an awe-inspiring vision of a space-faring future that has yet to be achieved. Clarke received a knighthood for his lifelong work.
Britain is also the home of the earliest space advocacy organization, the British Interplanetary Society. The organization, founded in 1933, has been instrumental in advancing the cause of space exploration.
Great Britain of the past, which once valued endeavors across frontiers, whether on Earth or beyond, seems to have declined just a little when one of its royal family can say what Prince William said. The names of Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, James Cook, and Robert Falcon Scott still ring in history. However, it is not too late for his highness to recover from the faux pas he has committed.
Prince William should undertake a visit to the U.S. and take a tour of its numerous space sites. These would include Spaceport America in New Mexico, where Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic operates; Van Horn, Texas, where Bezos’ Blue Origin launches the New Shepard; and Boca Chica, Texas, where Musk is developing the Starship rocket. The tour can end at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, now a mixed commercial-government space port.
The prince will surely receive an education and a greater appreciation of how space travel benefits the planet, even when conducted by rich people for fun and profit. He will at least find a reason to refrain from channeling such American luminaries as Sen. Bernie Sanders, who have denigrated space travel by billionaires in favor of making them “pay their fair share” of taxes.
It may be too much to suggest that Prince William undertake his own space flight, either on the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo or the Blue Origin New Shepard. He is a trained military pilot, but the queen may not give permission for the prince to risk his life flying on a rocket.
His highness would benefit from space travel, even a brief suborbital jaunt. William Shatner, the actor who played Capt. Kirk on Star Trek, was eloquent about his flight on the New Shepard and suggested that “everyone” needed to have that experience. Space travelers often experience a phenomenon called “the Overview Effect,” caused by seeing the Earth from space, that brings a better appreciation of the interconnectedness of all humans. One would suggest that the future head of state of a great nation would not only derive personal benefit but also would benefit on behalf of the people over whom he will reign as king.
Mark Whittington, who writes frequently about space and politics, has published a political study of space exploration titled Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? as well as The Moon, Mars and Beyond, and, most recently, Why is America Going Back to the Moon? He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.
