The Duke of Cambridge Prince William on Thursday criticised the race to space, encouraging the billionaires to ‘get their heads out of the clouds’ and ‘repair the planet’. His statement comes a day after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched another set of people, including actor William Shatner, to earth’s orbit. 

William is one of the many people slamming the ‘billionaires’ – namely Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson. Earlier, Senator Elizabeth Warren said the people ‘who are going into outer space but do not pay their taxes on Earth’.

Talking about his initiative – the first Earthshot Prize to reward those trying to save the planet, William told BBC, “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.”

“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.”

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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic have been in a competition of sorts. All three have been pushing space tourism. 

The inaugural Earthshot Prize awards ceremony will be held on Sunday. The oldest grandson of Queen Elizabeth II also referred to the COP26 summit in Glasgow, which begins on October 31. He warned world leaders against “clever speak, clever words, but not enough action”.

Queen Elizabeth, Charles and William are all due to attend events at the two-week summit.

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“It would be an absolute disaster if (son) George is sat here talking to you… in like 30 years’ time, still saying the same thing, because by then we will be too late,” he said. 

William’s father Prince Charles is a lifelong environmentalist. He has also spoken out on the need for action from the leaders rather than words in the buildup to the UN climate summit.

“He’s had a really rough ride on that, and I think you know he’s been proven to being well ahead of the curve, well beyond his time in warning about some of these dangers,” William said.

“But it shouldn’t be that there’s a third generation now coming along having to ramp it up even more.”