really think that the doors to space are finally
being opened. Right now. Yes, for those who can
only afford it or who were lucky enough to be
picked in a lottery or who maybe have the right
connections. But this is the way forward, and it’s
just really an exciting time to be covering the
space program.
Yes, there are angles, I mean, product
placement, for instance, just like in the movies
— certain candies that were taken up on some
of these flights and readily identified. The
champagne popping after the touchdown.
The champagnes were identified. You’ve never
seen NASA hawking products like that — even
though I must say now they are becoming more
and more open to this idea. So there’s that kind
of thing.
There’s a lot more vulnerability in the way the
these these private people are. You know, they’re
not pretending to be totally brave gladiators
going off into the arena. They admit to their
vulnerabilities. At the same time, however,
access is sometimes limited. When NASA sends
a crew up, generally we get to talk to them with
interviews before and afterward. That is not
always the case with private people.
Most famously, after the Bezos launch. I
was one of dozens of reporters in a hangar
waiting for a news conference after the flight,
and almost the entire news conference was
devoted to essentially the marketing ticket
sales woman for the company asking all the
questions. I think there were only a couple of
questions from reporters. I didn’t get a chance
to even ask. So that’s the flip side because it is
private. There is no need for anybody to talk