Astronomy and Space exploration discussion

We have all heard of it , we have all seen it at some point this month , what did you y'all really think of the two commercial companies , launching their founders to the edge of the Atmosphere?

I think the flights were cool , and i know this is has been seen by many as the new Billionaire Joyride , But i'd rather watch billionaires spending their money for the advancement of space exploration (even though there is little "advancement at a time) , and i did hear people saying that "these people could have given their money to help the poor" , instead of "wasting" it on space .......This is "Why do we spend money of space when we have problems here on earth" discussion all over again , ............Anyway , i am sure if if they hadn't taken this ride , they would not have given that money to the poor , .....Atleast this way , we space nerds get some excitement and this is , in a small scale an advancement of space exploration.

Good Perspective....i see this as the beginning of a new era where space travel or travel to the edge of space or Low earth orbit is becoming more and more common. Yes , it is true that these are now accessible for a small group in the world who have a few hundreds of thousands of dollars available to spend on a trip that is few minutes long , but this is the very beginning ,almost all new technological wonders we have seen in history were available only to the rich in the very beginning but after few years or decades , in this case as rockets are more and more reusable , the prices will be no where near what they are now. I would say this is a pretty good start.