I was trying to enjoy shatner’s reaction on the blue origin live stream, but couldn’t hear him over the hollering and champagne popping going on around him, which I thought was bizarre because I saw a dude with a boom mic running up to the capsule with the ground crew, it’s like they didn’t put any thought into the sound design of this very televised event

also i felt the champagne popping was pretty gauche for a company that already has a “space is for billionaires” PR problem (I suppose Bezos wouldn’t see the issue, since he interrupted Shatner to pour out a bottle himself, and iirc, tossed the bottle on the desert floor when he was done with it?? lol)

> champagne popping was pretty gauche for a company that already has a “space is for billionaires” PR problem

I still don’t get why this stereotype still exists given you can get sparking wine for like $3 per bottle. During bottomless mimosa specials, I’m pretty sure the orange juice is more expensive than the champagne. Champagne is my go-to for getting drunk as cheaply as possible.

Ever see nascar?

This probably belongs on Reddit more than here, but I can't help but share William Shatner's rendition of Rocket Man on this occasion: https://youtu.be/HQnmLT1KbQo

I think this is the more definitive version of Shatner’s Rocket Man: https://youtu.be/lul-Y8vSr0I

To me, space means orbit and this is just a PR stunt by a pretty nasty company: Blue Origin.

I have no idea if BO is mean, but I laughed out loud at the camera shot today of mission control and they we all wearing identical tech bro Patagonia style vest with the corporate logo. It looked just like what a high-tech supervillain would have his henchman wear.

https://www.google.com/search?q=blue+origin+mission+control&...

If BO’s PR-folks would be worth their money, mission control would have been wearing Star Trek clothing.

This is just weird.

It ensures there's no awkward moment where Bezos isn't the ONLY ONE one the room with a cowboy hat?

The masks up the evil Bond villain factor too.

What, BO turned my highschool library into their control room - I thought the school had thrown out that brown particle-board-plastic-veneer desk ages ago.

Even if true, I'm happy for Shatner being allowed to experience it. He's a major contributor to 10s of thousands of physicists and engineers choosing their career if not more; and this is an awesome gift most, if not all of us, would want, given the opportunity.

Can you elaborate on why you think Blue Origin is a "pretty nasty" company?

Ars has had a bunch of coverage lately on Blue Origin.

https://arstechnica.com/tag/blue-origin/

And this story specifically is revenant:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/09/former-blue-origin-e...

Throw away for obvious reasons.

I’ve been at Blue for a few years now, and all I can is that my experience has been nothing like what is described in the essay.

I can’t speak to sexual harassment because that sort of thing isn’t always blatantly obvious. So my not seeing it doesn’t really mean anything.

But as for the general culture, that essay is so far from my experience it’s hard to even comprehend. Having worked about twenty years at other aerospace firms, I find blue to be a really great experience. I work with really smart, quality people who are kind and always willing to help.

I’ve seen a couple people come through that weren’t great to work with if only because of pessimism, but it’s the exception by a large margin.

Cool, thanks for your perspective!

Thanks for the links

What do you think they're intending to achieve by this PR stunt? I'm not able to follow your rationale here..

I mean its very clearly a PR stunt to make Blue Origin and Bezos's space efforts more of a name brand like spacex. Making it a name brand likely has some benefits to Blue Origin's bottom line.

Okay, so its just normal marketing like what every company does? I guess maybe the word 'stunt' threw me off.

That's a good point, the point where common marketing/PR transitions to a "stunt" or "is over the top" is really subjective. A lot of people put space flight on a pedestal and so have a low bar for such a stunt.

Captain Kirk actually went to space now.

Welcome to the 21s century, I guess.

I feel like a lot of good hearted messaging was missed here. I loved Shatner in Star Trek and I see this as a missed opportunity to endorse space travel.

Sporting his red apparell.