Astronaut Jared Isaacman counters Bernie Sanders; vouches for private space agencies

Astronaut Jared Isaacman, who flew in SpaceX's private Inspiration4 mission last year, has defended the privatisation of the space sector, contrary to Bernie Sanders's stance. Sanders, who is a US Senator from Vermont, has been critical of the participation of private space companies arguing that it makes the rich even richer. In his latest argument through an opinion piece in The Guardian, Sanders had said that Bezos, who owns a space company Blue Origin, should not get a $10 billion NASA contract for developing a lunar lander. The Senator is against the decision as NASA has already struck a deal with SpaceX for a lander.

Although agreeing on not needing two landers, Isaacman said, "I disagree on rest. Government should buy best at best price from best company. If wealth of shareholders is now a factor, then Boeing CEO is worth a few hundred million. I didn't see his name (sic)". Isaacman referred to Boeing because he had earlier said that NASA has approached private companies to land humans on the Moon in 1969. 

"Those arguing redundancy of two landers, if it wasn't for a private funded effort there wouldn't be possibility of two (rockets) to get to (the Moon) -let alone land on it. Cost is why we haven't been to (the Moon) in 50yrs. Gov can buy 40 x F-35's for price of single SLS launch. Can't waste $$ or no (Moon) (sic)", the billionaire wrote in a second tweet.

Sanders' stance over the privatisation of space

The US Senator gets miffed over the idea of privatisation of space due to the alleged non-tax payment by billionaires such as Bezos and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Recently, Sanders had said that NASA has turned into an ATM machine due to the space race which is being fuelled by the two. 

"I am concerned that NASA has become little more than an ATM machine to fuel a space race not between the US and other countries, but between the two wealthiest men in America- Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos", Sanders had said.

In a tweet posted earlier this week, the Senator put out some data revealing that if an American paid $1 federal income tax, it was still more than what Bezos paid in 2007 and 2011 and Musk's tax payment in 2018.