Image Source: Change.org

On June 7th, the founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos announced his flight to space on July 20th. Soon after, a petition appeared on change.org which has gathered support for a cause that sounds ridiculously genius and hilarious.

Bezos is also the founder of Blue Origin, a space exploration company, which built the New Shepard Rocket. The rocket is reusable and can hold six passengers in its capsule. Bezos with his brother and the winner of an auction who will be paying $28 million will be flying with Bezos. The amount is said to be donated to Blue Origin’s foundation called “Club for the Future” which aims to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM. The three passengers will be strapped in a dome-shaped capsule and make an 11-minute flight to the edge of space. In this trip, the capsule will separate from the booster upon reaching the imaginary boundary above the Earth’s surface, and then it will re-enter the atmosphere and float back to the Earth with the help of parachutes.

Blue Origin believes that humanity will need to expand, explore, find new energy and material resources, and move industries that stress Earth into space. Hence, the space company is currently working on developing partially and fully reusable launch vehicles that are safe and low-cost. The company website states that it aims to enable a future where millions of people are living and working in space to benefit Earth.

Soon after, two petitions opened up on change.org that brought about a revolution. One of them is titled, “Do not allow Jeff Bezos to return to Earth.” which has been signed by more than 160,000 people. The description states that “Billionaires should not exist...on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter, they should stay there.” The other petition claimed, “Jeff’s an evil overlord hellbent on global domination. We’ve known this for years. Jeff has worked with the Epsteins and the Knights Templar, as well as the FreeMasons to gain control over the whole world. He’s also in bed with the flat earth deniers; it’s the only way they’ll allow him to leave the atmosphere.” Unfortunately, this petition was taken down.

Thousands of people have banded together to promote this petition as it receives new signatures each day. But will it impact Jeff Bezos in any caliber?  The answer is no as this stunt might be pushing his popularity further. In the end, this petition is a harmless satire directed towards Jeff Bezos who is compared to billionaire tech villains. While other companies spend a huge amount on marketing, the marketing for Blue Origin has been carried by the petition and memes that come with it. As the day of lift-off reaches its climax, people have anticipated Blue Origin’s first-ever human crewed launch with its CEO Jeff Bezos. The launch of New Shepard's first crewed flight will be broadcast Tuesday (July 20) beginning at 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT) at BlueOrigin.com and  Space.com. Liftoff is expected at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) but could change depending on weather or technical matters. After the landing, a live broadcast will be held with the astronauts.  The company will also be sharing mission updates all day via @BlueOrigin on Twitter.