Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is disappointed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos returned to Earth after briefly traveling to space.
Before Bezos’ launch on Tuesday morning, Gabbard tweeted, “Bezos, please stay up there. Do the world a favor.”
Bezos, please stay up there. Do the world a favor.
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) July 20, 2021
She later added, “The only problem I have with Bezos’ Blue Origin space rocket ship into outer space is that it’s going to come back.”
The only problem I have with Bezos’ Blue Origin space rocket ship into outer space is that it’s going to come back.
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) July 20, 2021
Bezos traveled to space with his brother Mark Bezos, 82-year-old Mercury 13 aerospace pioneer Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, as Fox News reports. He returned to Earth before 10 a.m. Eastern Time.
The billionaire received criticism for his trip and was asked about it during an appearance on CNN’s “New Day.”
He agreed with the criticism and said people need to think about problems here on Earth as well.
“Well, I say they’re largely right. We have to do both,” Bezos said. “We have lots of problems here and now on Earth and we need to work on those, and we always need to look to the future. We’ve always done that as a species, as a civilization. We have to do both.”
A petition entitled “Do not allow Jeff Bezos to return to Earth” launched in early June on Change.org after Bezos announced his plans to travel to space. As of Tuesday afternoon, the petition acquired more than 165,000 signatures.
“For me, it started as a joke, because obviously there is no way we can keep Jeff Bezos from re-entering Earth,” Ric Geiger, the creator of the petition, said.
During a press conference after the launch, Bezos thanked those involved with Amazon.
“I also want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, ‘cause you guys paid for all this,” Bezos said.