Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg trolled for a free trip to space Tuesday before lamenting such a venture was not “in my budget.”
As Amazon king Jeff Bezos’s space organ, dubbed New Shepard, lasted 10 minutes away from Earth, Buttigieg told the Economic Club of Washington, DC, virtually, “I would go up in a heartbeat. I think it’s such exciting stuff,” the AP reported.
But he added, “I don’t think the airfare or spacefare, whatever you would call it, is going to be in my budget anytime soon.”
Bezos private company Blue Origin was the second to make a trip to space after he auctioned off seats for millions of dollars each.
Virgin Galactic “already has more than 600 reservations for space flights at $250,000 apiece after its founder Richard Branson was the first to blast off earlier this month in the race for space tourist dollars,” according to the AP.
Buttigieg fretted to the Economic Club about regulating commercial space travel.
“I think there will be a lot more where this came from,” he said.
“Everybody understands it will be a while before we’re at the level of commercial air travel where you should have 100% expectation of safety onboard,” the secretary told the group. “But whatever risks those early travelers decide they’re going to take on, we have got to make sure there is no risk to people on the ground and in the airspace.”
Buttigieg claimed “we weren’t just designed for a lot of private space travel.”
Meanwhile, anti-capitalists created a petition to prevent Bezos from returning to Earth.
Over 183,000 people signed a statement claiming, “Billionaires should not exist… on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter, they should stay there.”
Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays–download full podcast episodes. Follow him on GETTR.