There is some good news, some reminder of America’s greatness and potential for a bright future.
In the midst of a global pandemic that has ravaged the nation’s health and economy, during a time of unrest with protests decrying police brutality sometimes leading to riots, the United States once again is reaching for the stars. A rocket ship built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company left Earth on Saturday — from the same launch pad used to send Apollo astronauts to the moon a half-century ago — and safely delivered a two-person crew to the International Space Station.
It was the first American launch of humans into space since 2011, when NASA retired its space shuttle program. Since then, NASA has relied on Russian spaceships launched from Kazakhstan to take astronauts to and from the space station.
And it was the first orbital spaceflight shepherded by a private company, ushering in a new era of space travel.
NASA in recent years has outsourced the job of designing and building the next generation of spaceships, awarding $7 billion in contracts to SpaceX and Boeing in a public-private partnership aimed at driving down costs and spurring innovation. Boeing’s spaceship, the Starliner, is expected to fly astronauts for the first time next year.
The SpaceX mission opens a broad list of possibilities for space travel in the not-so-distant future. As Sara Morrison wrote for Vox.com: “What will the future of commercialized space travel look like? … Should we book Moon hotel reservations now to beat the rush? All we know for sure now is that commercial space travel does have a future, and experts are optimistic about what it holds.”
In the process, the launch might help rekindle America’s fascination with The Final Frontier, recalling the sense of hope and imagination that was fostered by the space program of the 1960s. NASA’s Artemis Program aims to put humans on the Moon by 2024; we haven’t been there since 1972. And Ariel Ekblaw of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: “Space really is one of the most ultimate examples of the commons for humanity, so we should be thoughtful in the way in which we’re going about commercialization in low Earth orbit.”
The successful SpaceX mission is a cause for celebration and a reminder of American ingenuity. It could not have arrived at a more beneficial time.
