Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day for October 18, 2018
The Number of the Day columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
October 18, 2018: Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos envisions a future with 1 trillion humans living throughout the galaxy.
To help make that happen, he is investing a billion dollars a year in his rocket company, Blue Origin. The firm’s goal is to make commercial space travel more affordable. He considers this project to be his most important work because "we are starting to bump up against the absolute true fact that Earth is finite."[1]
An earlier Number of the Day noted that private investors have already poured $13.9 billion into space ventures during this century. Last year also saw 37 commercial spacecraft launches, coming close to the 51 government launches.
Blue Origin has also recently been awarded a $500 million Air Force contract to develop a new rocket. Employees at some other Silicon Valley tech companies have expressed discomfort with defense contracts and created headaches for management at Google, Microsoft, and other companies. "We are going to continue to support the [Department of Defense]," Bezos said. "If big tech companies are going to turn their back on the U.S. Department of Defense, this country is going to be in trouble."
Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology.
- October 17, 2018 – 17 percent increase in federal deficit during 2018
- October 16, 2018 – 21 days left in Election 2018
- October 15, 2018 – 67 percent of Americans represent exhausted majority tired of polarized politics
- October 12, 2018 – 526 years ago today, Columbus reached the New World
- October 11, 2018 – 53 percent of voters don’t know who Susan Collins is
- To see other recent numbers, check out the archive.
Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day is published by Ballotpedia weekdays at 8:00 a.m. Eastern. Click here to check out the latest update.
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Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
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