Elon Musk slams people who complain about billionaires in SPACE and says missions ‘represent hope’

ELON Musk has taken to Twitter to hit back at people complaining about billionaires going to space.

The SpaceX CEO’s comments come just a few days after Virgin Galactic CEO Sir Richard Branson reached space on his commercial craft.

Musk tweeted in a poem-like form: “those who attack space maybe don’t realize that space represents hope for so many people.”

SpaceX rival Jeff Bezos is planning to launch himself into space next week onboard his Blue Origin New Shepard craft.

Should all go to plan, he’ll join Branson in being another billionaire to beat Musk to space.

Musk tweeted congratulations to Branson on his successful space flight and has even bought a ticket for a future Virgin Galactic trip.

Those tickets promise four minutes at the edge of space and cost around £180,000.

“Space represents hope”

Although Musk’s poem-like tweet argued that billionaires going to space means “hope” for the rest of us, he ended up facing a lot of backlash.

Twitter user @doctor_whats said: “So why not get earth to a good point before that exploration?

“If you can’t learn how to treat a planet, what right do you have to f**k up a second one?”

Another said: “And yet other people would simply like billionaires to pay their taxes and fix earth’s problems.”

“Race to space for their egos”

And, one user queried in another jokey four line tweet: “Perhaps billionaires Could solve problems on earth Rather than race to space For their egos.”

Climate activist Greta Thunberg is one of the big names who has spoken out against SpaceX’s plan to colonise Mars.

Thunberg used a mock advertisement video to ask why all the money used on getting to space couldn’t be spent making Earth a better place.

The narrator of the video says: “Mars offers the ultimate freedom. Freedom to pave a new path for humans. Freedom to create a new way of life. Freedom to forever change the course of humanity.”

However, text at the end of the video reads: “And for the 99 percent of humans who will stay on Earth, we’d better fix climate change.”

ReutersBillionaire Richard Branson flew to the edge of space at the weekend[/caption]

In other space news, a Nasa study has revealed how a ‘wobble’ in the Moon’s orbit could cause devastating flooding in the 2030s.

Sir Richard Branson has described his landmark spaceflight over the weekend as “extreme in every way” and a “dream come true”.

And, stunning footage of Sir Richard floating around his Virgin space plane has gone viral on social media.

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