autoevolution
 

Jeremy Clarkson: Mourn the Loss of Your Pilot and then Carry On

Top Gear’s star Jeremy Clarkson believes people should stop complaining about Richard Branson’s ambition to make his commercial space flight service a success, even though Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashed last month. In his weekly column he writes for the Sun, the TV host explains how “almost everything that makes our lives better today - planes, cars, travel, power and so on - had to be invented by people who risked their lives.”
Jeremy Clarkson 1 photo
Photo: www.bbc.co.uk
Ever since Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic crash happened on the 31st October, fans of the world’s first commercial space travel service have been getting second thoughts. Some of the customers even withdrewn their deposits, as concerns on the safety of the trip have been raising constantly.

South China Morning Post recently reported that around 20 of the 700 customers who have paid up to $250,000 ahead to book seats on the space tourism venture’s first commercial flights have asked for their money back. Voices in the industry claim the SpaceShipTwo is still not a stable spacecraft, it uses a new type of powerful fuel that could get out of control and that private space ventures should not rush that much.

Clarkson takes Branson's side

Jeremy Clarkson is basically taking Richard Branson’s side on the billionaire investor's ambition to continue the project, even though one of the pilot has sadly lost his life in the crash.

Really? Because where would humankind be if we’d given up when we encountered a problem? In a cave, most likely, cold and frightened,” Clarkson writes in his article. Pointing out to a long list of people that have helped humanity evolve, the Top Gear star shows how humankind always sacrificed something for the sake of research and development.

Some of the greatest minds in our history have even sacrificed their lives for a higher purpose, that of overcoming the problems they met during their research, just as Virgin Galactic team is doing now with their space program.

Jeremy has a point

Now, you guys know that Clarkson is no saint whenver it comes to all the controversies that come with his show, but we tend to agree with him on this one. Which is why we decided to list the end of the man’s article below.

"You may, of course, think that Branson’s space tourism project isn’t in quite the same league as nuclear power or the London Underground; that it’s nothing more than a publicity stunt that will only benefit a few pop stars.

But one day, when your great grandchildren are taking rides into space because it beats hanging around the local shopping centre, and they see the world for what it is — a lonely, vulnerable and beautiful blue speck in the vast ocean of nothingness — who knows? They may decide it’s worth taking care of," the Top Gear host adds.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories