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This Tuesday, Amazon founder and the richest man on the planet, Jeff Bezos, entered space for the first time. This was the virgin flight for Blue Origin, the space travel company that Bezos founded, and lasted 10 minutes and 10 seconds.\nBezos's trip came just days after billionaire Richard Branson reached the edge of space on board his Virgin Galactic rocket plane. The company currently has more than 600 reservations, a trip that costs his commercial passengers, $250,000 apiece. The company hopes to launch to the public next year.\nWhile the White House called Bezos\u2019s flight a \u201cmoment of American exceptionalism,\u201d others have been less than thrilled to see the wealthiest in the country head into the heavens.\xa0\n\u201cWatching the coverage of the billionaires going to space and the notion that it may pave the way for all of us to go in the future. Can I just ask why they think everyone would want to go to space for 8 minutes? And how is this a good use of millions of $? How bout curing cancer?,\u201d wrote former World Vision head Richard Stearns in a series of tweets. \u201cIt is estimated that Bezos spent $5.5 billion to achieve his space flight. That same amount of money could have brought clean water to 110 million people who currently have no access. It could also have given a $4000 raise to every one of Amazon\u2019s 1.3mm employees.\u201d\nAfter his flight, Bezos thanked \u201cevery Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer. Because you guys paid for all this.\u201d Bezos says he funds Blue Origin by selling $1 billion of Amazon stock annually.\nMark J. Shelhamer is former chief scientist of NASA\u2019s Human Research Program. He is professor of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, at Johns Hopkins University, where he is also director of the Human Spaceflight Lab. He most recently also became the director and founder of the Bioastronautics@Hopkins initiative. Shelhamer has been involved in human spaceflight research since the 1980s and serves as an adviser to commercial spaceflight federation.\nShelhamer joined global media manager Morgan Lee and executive editor Ted Olsen to discuss whether Christians should celebrate billionaires in space, why not everyone was a fan of spaceflight when it first took off, and and how working in this industry has affected his relationship with God.\nWhat is Quick to Listen? Read more\nRate Quick to Listen on Apple Podcasts\nFollow the podcast on Twitter\nFollow our hosts on Twitter: Morgan Lee and Ted Olsen\nRead an essay from Mark Shelhamer\nMusic by Sweeps\nQuick to Listen is produced by Morgan Lee and Matt Linder\nThe transcript is edited by Faith Ndlovu\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices