Page 6 - Demo

THE
NEW
SPACE
RACE
Story by Phoenix Boggs
Living in Brevard, you probably know someone who works in the space industry. NASA’s presence in the county can be
felt not only when the launches that take off from Cape Canaveral shake windows for miles around, but also in the many ancillary businesses which have grown as the space program has grown. Recently, a new
space giant has taken up residence in Brevard: SpaceX. Although founded in 2002 by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, SpaceX truly announced its presence with the sonic booms of the Falcon Heavy launch in February. Its goals for the future of manned spaceflight capture the imaginations of Florida residents. SpaceX is just one of several new companies that promise to privatize the space industry. With the rise of such companies an issue has emerged into the forefront- whether space exploration should be entrusted to private companies
such as SpaceX and Blue Origin or to public agencies such as NASA.
NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is an agency of the United States’ government. Funding
for its projects is granted by decisions that pass through Congress and endure strict oversight. NASA depends on political support and the governmental allocation of funds. SpaceX and other private space companies, with no such tethers, are able to move forward with projects and ideas without waiting for the government to grant them the opportunity.
Some proponents of the SpaceX vision claim that NASA will be unable to keep up with the competition from private companies. One of NASA’s current projects, the Orion spacecraft, will not carry a human crew until 2023. The spacecraft is being built with help from the European Space Agency (ESA), as Orion is an American-European joint project. Critics point out that the Orion, which is one of NASA’s most important projects, is not being built exclusively by NASA.
As far back as the 1980s, one of NASA’s driving goals has been to put a man on Mars. Some experts, however, have expressed doubt over whether NASA is capable of this feat. In a congressional subcommittee in 2016, a delegation of experts testified in front of lawmakers about their opinions on the progress NASA has been making towards landing men on the red planet. Experts such as Tom Young and John Sommerer testified that NASA lacks a concrete plan to getting
to Mars, even saying that the agency is forty years away from making that historic landing.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Mars Colonial Transport plans to use reusable boosters, orbital refueling, and
utilization of Mars’s own resources to launch mankind to Mars.
5
The Orion
The Falcon Heavy