What Prince William Really Thinks About Elon Musk’s Extreme Space Travel Ambitions

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Prince William purses his lips and looks up in a suit

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In recent years, competitive billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have been embroiled in a modern-day space race thanks to their respective companies SpaceX and Blue Origin. Both men have been working hard to normalize space tourism, though they have even loftier ambitions as well — such as Musk’s plan to establish a colony on Mars. However, not everyone thinks that’s the best idea. Or, at least, not right now. And according to William, Prince of Wales, these wealthy entrepreneurs should be aiming to improve things here on Earth before looking towards the stars.

“We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live,” Prince William proclaimed during a 2021 interview with the BBC’s “Newscast,” adding, “I think that ultimately is what sold it for me — that really is quite crucial to be focusing on this [planet] rather than giving up and heading out into space to try and think of solutions for the future.” The royal’s comments came shortly after legendary “Star Trek” actor William Shatner took a brief trip to space aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space shuttle.

Elsewhere in his interview, the heir to the British throne confessed that he wasn’t particularly pushed about leaving Earth himself. William also voiced his concerns regarding the negative effect that commercial space travel would have on the environment amid rising distress pertaining to climate change here at home. As William pointed out, “It’s very unnerving and it’s very, you know, anxiety making.”

The Prince of Wales has long championed environmentalist causes

Prince William shaking hands with a man in a hat as another man looks on

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To his credit, the Prince of Wales has historically put his money where his mouth is when it comes to his environmentalist concerns. In 2021 — the very same year that Prince William made a not-so-subtle dig at space tourism — he awarded the inaugural Earthshot Prize as part of a decade-long program to reward those fighting to combat climate change and other pressing environmental issues. Five winners are selected each year, with each of them receiving £1 million GBP (approximately $1.25 million USD as of December 2024) to continue their efforts.

“Our speed of innovation has been incredible,” William enthused in a video shared to the official Earthshot Prize YouTube channel in 2023, referring to various notable scientific breakthroughs over the years such as the advent of space travel. “But so too has the acceleration of our impact. Over my grandmother’s lifetime, the last 90 years or so, our impact has accelerated so fast that our climate, oceans, air, nature, and all that depends on them are in peril. […] We start this new decade knowing that it is the most consequential period in history. The science is irrefutable.”

The determined royal warned those watching, “If we do not act in this decade, the damage that we have done will be irreversible — and the effects felt not just be future generations, but by all of us alive today.” William went on to praise late U.S. President John F. Kennedy for his ambitious pursuit of space travel back in the 1960s, and once again called for similar zeal in protecting the Earth.