How a tax haven is leading the race to privatise space

Luxembourg has shown how far a tiny country can go by serving the needs of global capitalism. Now it has set its sights on outer spaceOn a drizzly afternoon in April, Prince Guillaume, the hereditary grand duke of Luxembourg, and his wife, Princess St éphanie, sailed through the front doors of an office building in the outskirts of Seattle and into the headquarters of an asteroid-mining startup called Planetary Resources, which plans to “expand the economy into space”.The company ’s engineers greeted the royals with hors d’oeuvres, craft beer and bottles upon bottles of Columbia Valley rieslings and syrahs. In the corner of the lounge stood a vintage Asteroids arcade game; on the wall hung an American flag alongside the grand duchy’s own red, white and blue stripes. Be tween the two flags was a prototype of a spacecraft designed to roam the galaxy, prospecting asteroids for precious natural resources that would someday – at least in theory – make the shareholders of Planetary Resources very wealthy earthlings indeed.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Luxembourg Space Mining Tax havens World news Source Type: news