RIP.

Allen doesn't seem to have been going for the moon (yet), but I wish the billionaires would not spend their hoards on private rocket companies. It's a bit gross that the article you linked calls them "philanthropists" for doing it. Andrew Carnegie was a real bastard, but he funded many wonderful small-town libraries, which remain valuable community centers over 100 years later. Bill Gates took his shot at world domination, but is now using his money to solve real-world problem like malaria.

It's their money, so they can do what they want with it, but rocket companies are pure vanity. Real, cost-effective philanthropy would mean improving the perfectly acceptable planet we live on, not trying to terraform Mars.