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When the space race first began, governments were helping to fund space exploration, including sending astronauts to the moon. While entities like NASA did a lot to help space mission exploration, recent exploration was stalled. Governments were spending money of their own to fulfill their own countries’ needs, rather than spending money on space exploration. Many billionaires started to step in and use their own money to learn more about space research, space colonization, and private space projects. Here are a few of the billionaires who have stepped up to help further the space colonization and exploration space mission
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Branson is best known for being the founder of the Virgin Group, a company that has made him billions of dollars. As an entity of the Virgin Group, Branson created the Virgin Galactic company that he hopes will be the first commercial spaceline. He has spent decades working on aircraft that can safely and quickly transport people to outer space. In the summer of 2021, his first flight, with himself on board, launched. He hopes that one day, space travel may be as common as air travel, and people can travel and explore space just like they would in other countries.
Yuri Milner
Yuri Milner, the founder of DST Global, has long used his fortune to help fund scientific, mathematical, and technological advancements. Recently, he released the Eureka Manifesto, basically laying out his intent to help with scientific discovery and space exploration efforts. Yuri Milner’s manifesto states that he feels that to advance as a society, we need to learn more about the universe surrounding us. These discoveries will in turn improve science and technology. Yuri Milner created the foundation funding the Starshot Project. The project is designed to send robotic probes into space to learn more about nearby star systems, as well as having the potential to be launched to various parts of the solar system quickly. They hope to launch probes that can reach places as far away as 25 million miles in 20 years.
Robert Bigelow
Robert Bigelow is the owner of the Budget Suites of America hotel chain. Ever since he was a child, he wanted to be an astronaut and be involved in space exploration. While his career took a different path, he is now using his money to help fund space exploration and colonization efforts. He created Bigelow Aerospace and then teamed up with NASA to help create private space stations. As space exploration, space colonization, and space tourism advance, space habitats will become important. Bigelow Aerospace is working hard to create large habitats that can be compressed for space travel. This seems to be the most effective and efficient way to get new buildings into space, and takes far less time than fixed-sized modules, like the ones used to create the space station.
Billionaires Who Helped to Advance Space Mission Exploration
Richard Branson, Yuri Milner, and Robert Bigelow are just three of the billionaires who have stepped up and helped to further the space mission. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Stephen Hawking, and Mark Zuckerburg are a few other big names who are helping out with this mission. Governments do not have the money or resources to spend exploring space as much as they would like to. Thanks to billionaires prioritizing space exploration, space travel, space tourism, and space colonization, the entire world may learn a lot about the universe we live in thanks to these individuals and their contributions to the space mission.
