Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were launched into space in June 2024 on what was supposed to be an eight-day mission. However, technical problems developed on their Boeing Starliner capsule. NASA ultimately kept them on the International Space Station (ISS) and returned that capsule without a crew.
Our astronauts finally splashed down on earth March 18, along with two crew members from the ISS. A pod of dolphins kept them company until the rescue ship lifted the capsule aboard.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX corporation plays a powerful role in space exploration. On Sunday, October 13, 2024, SpaceX made history by successfully launching and recovering the largest rocket ever made, the Starship Super Heavy. The enormous booster after disengagement was also recovered, in a spectacular feat of engineering.
Space business is growing rapidly. In April 2021, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) announced SpaceX would construct a lander to take astronauts to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
President John F. Kennedy made the dramatic pledge in 1961 to land a man on the Moon before the end of that decade – and return him safely to earth, the president always carefully added.
President Kennedy also fostered the strong foundation of business-government partnership in space exploration through his 1962 legislation on communication satellites.
We automatically recognize JFK’s role in launching the mammoth Moon project. Collectively, we almost universally ignore his leadership in creating the global satellite-based communications network that is vital to how we communicate, work and live today.
President Dwight Eisenhower initiated the satellite communications effort. He emphasized established communications corporations.
The Kennedy administration largely continued that course. The new proposed COMSAT (Communications Satellite) Corporation was privately chartered, not a government agency.
Intense controversy followed, with angry protests within the president’s Democratic Party about handouts and welfare for big business. Reflecting political dynamics of that time, conservative but populist Southern plus Western Democrats were among the most outraged.
Alleged favoritism to big business was highly controversial two decades after the Great Depression.
Nonetheless, Congress overwhelmingly approved legislation creating COMSAT. This in turn facilitated rapidly growing collaboration among major communications corporations and a vast array of other firms in creating the pervasive global satellite systems of today.
As one example, in 1973 a consortium of major commercial banks agreed to transfer funds electronically, opening the door to today’s enormous fast-moving global banking system. The initial SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) system, initiated in 1973, has operated since 1977. Over the decades, satellite along with land-based systems have become integral to vast voice and data communications of all kinds.
Beyond personalities, sustained space exploration reflects our history of business-government partnerships. Give JFK credit for appreciating that in launching us into space, long-term.
Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy resisted militarization of space. President Lyndon Johnson pursued this same goal, successfully. By contrast, President Donald Trump created the military Space Force.
This underscores the conflicting considerations to be included in evaluation of the appropriate roles related to our United States military in outer space. Russia’s initiatives make competition, though not necessarily confrontation, in that realm unavoidable today.
The International Space Station involves Russia and the United States, plus Canada, Europe and Japan. Despite setbacks, space exploration does foster international cooperation.
Our two just-returned astronauts appear to be healthy, a blessing.
Navy test pilot Williams has emphasized the support provided by his religious faith, a thought-provoking observation
Arthur I. Cyr is author of “After the Cold War” (NYU and Palgrave/Macmillan) and other books. Contact acyr@carthage.edu