Looks To Buy NASA After Failed Presidential Bid

Aero-News April 1 Special Edition

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has announced that he will start his own commercial space company in an effort to spend the money he has earmarked for his Presidential campaign. But rather than start from scratch, he is making a bid for NASA.

Bloomberg joins a small but growing club of billionaires who have made their fortune in the tech industry and then started launching rockets into space. But rather than build something from the ground up, Bloomberg is exploring what it would take to buy NASA from the U.S. Government, according to an insider with knowledge of the plan.

“Everyone knows the agency is underfunded. Mike has plenty of money,” the source said. “So while Elon and Jeff took the hard route, Mike just thought ‘hey, let’s buy an ongoing concern, put some efficiencies in place, and see if I can still beat those other two guys to the Moon or Mars’.”

The source said Bloomberg wasn’t looking to go small with things like suborbital joyrides or ferry work to ISS. “Mike’s big vision is to establish a colony on the Moon or Mars where he can limit the amount of soda colonists can drink and where there will be no salt on the tables. Since he was unable to convince enough people that his was the right vision for America, he’s set his sights on something off-planet.”

The NASA budget for FY2021 is estimated at some $25.2 billion. “Mike could probably find that if he looked under the cushions on his living room sofa,” the source said. “And so much of the hardware is so old that we could probably get it for a fire-sale price.”

When President Trump learned of the rumor, he Tweeted “He’ll never get off the ground. I’ll take him out with my Space Force.”

FMI: www.nasa.gov