Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Billionaire space race


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep‎__EXPECTED_UNCONNECTED_PAGE__. (non-admin closure) 🍪 Cookie  Monster  11:27, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

Billionaire space race

 * – ( View AfD View log | edits since nomination)

This article is essentially a POV fork of private spaceflight. First, the title is misleading, as Elon Musk does not have an interest to go to space himself. Second, this article assumes that there is a rivalry between Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic, but SpaceX primarily work on orbital spaceflight while Blue Origina and Virgin Galactic primarily work on suborbital spaceflight. These are two very different domains of spaceflight and there is strong consensus among spaceflight industry observers that SpaceX has already "won" the race or such the race does not even exist. In my opinion, if this article is not deleted, content in this article should at the very least be rewritten to remove POV bias. CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 11:26, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Spaceflight-related deletion discussions.  Spiderone (Talk to Spider) 11:41, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Strong Keep, this is a separate stand-alone notable topic which is well sourced to this exact name, is known throughout the space community, and certainly benefits the encyclopedia as a stand-alone article. The nomination implies that the name means billionaires were racing to go to space themselves. No, it means that some billionaires took "race" to heart and want to enhance space travel for the sake of humanity. As for the assertion that someone has won the race, that itself goes to prove the notability of the page and why, per historical importance, it should be kept and enlarged and not "rewritten". Randy Kryn (talk) 11:44, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * First, well-sourced article does not imply that this topic should have its own article on Wikipedia. Yes, this "billionaire space race" is known throughout the space community as a ridicule point for those that unaware of spaceflight. The closest thing that can be called as a race here is the launch of New Shepard carrying Jeff Bezos (20 July 2021) and Virgin Galactic Unity 22 (11 July 2021), which happened within the span of 2 weeks. This is just purely coincidental, but it sparked a media frenzy ranting about why space billionaires are bad.
 * Second, you are assuming that these billionaires "raced" to go to space themselves and by extension foster develop space travel, when in reality this is not the case. Elon Musk could have went to space one year earlier than these suborbital attempts, which is before Crew Dragon Demo-2 launched (30 May 2020). But more importantly, if there ever such a race, the race has been 'won' by SpaceX years ago. In Wikipedia terms, there is no persistent coverage after the event, nor there is depth in coverage beyond the ranting, nor that the source provided anything different than just regurgitating each other. Perhaps this is best summarized by a retrospective op-ed by SpaceNews: "But while the experience on social media might have been awful—a not-uncommon experience in general these days—it’s not clear if the backlash has had any real effect on the industry."
 * Third, about the article itself. The article is currently an amalgam of SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic and Stratolaunch operations. According to my knowledge, only Blue Origin–Virgin Galactic and Virgin Galactic–Stratolaunch have any sort of rivalries, but they are short-lived and coincidental. A logical conclusion of that is that this article is built on mountains of original search, tenuously backed by passing-by mentions by reliable sources to build a POV-laiden image of private spaceflight. In other words, this article is an elaborate hoax. CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 12:14, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Many reliable sources have called this the 'Billionaire space race' (or uppercased Billionaire Space Race), so to call this a hoax ignores sourcing and notability. Because you wrongly believe the topic is a hoax, even though extremely well-sourced, please rethink the nomination, thanks. Randy Kryn (talk) 12:21, 18 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Keep. There's a ton of sources regarding this specific term, and there has been consistent coverage of it for a few years now. Whatever quality issues the article has doesn't matter - AfD isn't cleanup, and the article is nowhere near TNT territory. Cortador (talk) 20:58, 18 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Keep: The "billionaire space race" is a term for the roughly 20-year rivalry between multiple billionaires. The topic has considerable media coverage, and multiple books, such as The Space Barons (2018) and Rocket Billionaires (2019), have chronicled portions of these rivalries. There is significant coverage in independent, reliable sources to meet the inclusion criteria for coverage.


 * Depth of coverage: The Guardian (October 2023) and 60 Minutes (March 2024)
 * Duration of coverage: Bloomberg (January 2024) and Fortune (December 2023)
 * Diversity of sources: Books, newspapers, news magazines, academic articles, and more are available as sources. There's more than a single source or instance that establishes the notability of the article. Redraiderengineer (talk) 22:29, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Keep agree with comments above
 * &#123;{u&#124; Gtoffoletto  &#125;}  talk 05:54, 19 March 2024 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.