Nationalize This!

Space, many believe, is the final frontier…  And like all frontiers, there’s a bunch of white men preparing to break free from their home world to colonize it for their own personal benefit. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson among others, have all showed off their conspicuous consumption by seizing upon space exploration as the signifier of the truly wealthy. Because if too many people are becoming billionaires, how do you show off that you’re an even richer billionaire? Well, you go to space. Space is for rich people.     So how much of space exploration was really meant for the public anyway? And what will it take to reclaim the airless void for the people? We talk with Shalina Chatlani, a science journalist and Nationalize This!'s resident neeeerd.