The Wrong Message Clouds SpaceX-NASA’s Latest Achievement

June 2, 2020 – When President Donald Trump stood in front of the rostrum at NASA with a Dragon 2 spacecraft in the background at Cape Canaveral, he chose to extoll the latest success, “a new age of American ambition.” What was the big deal? The United States, after a hiatus of nine years was once more launching American astronauts on US-built rockets but not ones designed by the Space Agency, but rather by a private, commercial company, SpaceX.

The initial Russian reaction to the launch can be described in the phrase “what’s the big deal?” After all, the Russians had been flying humans to the International Space Station (ISS) including Americans since the hiatus caused by the ending of the Space Shuttle program in 2012. The big deal not mentioned by the Russians will be the loss of revenue from booking American astronauts on future Soyuz flights. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency will need to make up the budget shortfall, and that may happen through military investment by the Russian government because of what later ensued in Trump’s speech.

The Roscosmos spokesperson made a straightforward observation in his comments: “What has happened should have happened long ago. Now it’s not only the Russians flying to the ISS but also the Americans. Well, that’s wonderful! It is very important to have at least two possibilities to reach the station. After all, it’s not enough … you must have at least two transport systems capable of ensuring the presence of crews of different countries onboard the ISS.” And when Boeing sorts out its problems with the Starliner, it will mean three transport systems being able to deliver astronauts to the station.

Trump went on, not just extolling the success of the SpaceX-NASA partnership but talking about the militarization of the U.S. space program through the creation of the Space Force. He stated: “We’ll soon have the greatest weapons ever imagined in history. I’ve already seen designs and even I can’t believe it.”

He went on further to talk about the prestige of the nation stating “You can’t be number one on Earth if you are number two in space. And we are not going to be number two anywhere. Nowhere is this more true than with our military, which we have completely rebuilt. Under my administration, we have invested two and a half-trillion dollars in new planes, ships, submarines, tanks, missiles, rockets, anything you can think of. And last year I signed the law, creating the sixth branch of that already very famous United States Armed Forces, the Space Force.”

Was this the time to talk about the militarization of space?

The Russian reaction was described as worrisome particularly because of the implications for the militarization of space including weapons deployment. It wasn’t surprising, therefore, that the Roscosmos spokesperson stated, “We are not going to rest on our laurels either. We will test two new rockets this year, and next year we will resume our lunar program. It will be interesting.”

The truth for Russia is this. Without American passengers, the Soyuz program will be chronically underfunded as Russia’s civilian space budget is drained for expenditures by the state on other pet projects of Vladimir Putin, and on military procurements. The space industry is described as being in bad shape by Roscosmos insiders. The competition from SpaceX which can build faster and cheaper, and China with its own burgeoning human spaceflight program will limit Russian opportunities in low-Earth orbit. For Russia to get back in the game it needs to revive the program for its next-generation spaceship, Federatsiya, which to this date has never been finished or flown.

Trump talked about NASA and space travel as “a test of our values and of our faith.” Meanwhile, Americans in the tens of thousands were out protesting on the streets of U.S. cities precisely because America’s values and faith were under siege by this President’s administration and its racial and socio-economic policies or lack thereof.

The President spent the first nine minutes of his NASA speech talking about the protestors and social justice in relation to the death of a black American, George Floyd, at the hands of police in Minneapolis. He chose to make a passing reference to the COVID-19 pandemic around halfway through the speech that has already taken close to 107,000 American lives and infected more than 1.8 million.

He talked about the importance of “decency, and civility” in American society with a passing reference to the health crisis Americans are facing which he originally belittled as a hoax and then largely ignored until he couldn’t. As of today, more than one-quarter of COVID-19 cases are in the United States and Americans represent 28% of the total worldwide deaths recorded. So much for a new age of American ambition.

I watched the launch last Saturday like millions of others as Falcon 9 and Dragon flew into low-Earth orbit. And on Sunday I tuned in to the rendezvous and docking of Dragon with the ISS. This was all happening while the protestors were on the streets responding to George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police. It brought back memories of 1968 when Americans were equally out on the street and at odds about race, the Vietnam War, and police actions similar in behaviour to what we witnessed on Sunday and yesterday.

In 1968, the year ended with Apollo 8 flying to the Moon and back and with astronauts onboard reading from the Book of Genesis and talking about the “good Earth” and the hope for peace. They did this while showing us a view of our planet rising over the Moon’s horizon. It was a very moving performance.

Not so much on Monday when Trump went biblical. But before waving the good book at the cameras in front of a partially-burned and boarded-up church across from the White House he had police forcibly clear the streets of peaceful protestors using tear gas and flash-bang device. He then went for a stroll with his entourage. So much for striving to meet American “values” and “faith.”

And as for the Russian reaction, Trump’s words may lead to a new space race, and not one aimed at peaceful exploration of other worlds. Trump talks about holding the high ground, a militaristic term to describe the Moon. What was once described by treaty as a place to be explored and used for the benefit of all humanity to advance science, knowledge and international cooperation, maybe forever lost because this President’s values are incompatible with those lofty goals. Trump wants to own the real estate because that’s all he knows. In his Cape Canaveral speech on Saturday he even talked about the Florida Space Coast in realtor’s terms calling it “the finest pieces of real estate on Earth.”