THE BILLIONAIRE SPACE RACE: WHAT PRICE EXPLORATION?

Fifty-two summers after America put the first men

on the moon, in 2021 a “space race” again captivated the nation. This one generated not the unity the events of 1969 did, but a variety of views that conjured up longstanding questions about equity and

privilege when juxtaposed against the lure of adventure in space. Our reactions reflected that, ranging from the innately practical, through middle range theories, to the spiritual.

This race involved privately funded space forays that to some seemed like joyrides for the rich.  On

July 11, English entrepreneur Richard Branson flew on his company’s Virgin Galactic spaceplane above the 50-mile altitude the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recognizes as the beginning of space. 

Nine days later, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, Amazon chairman Jeff Bezos and three

others used his company’s Blue Origin rocket  and spacecraft for a ten-minute suborbital flight to an altitude of 66 miles. Bezos and his crew essentially mimicked NASA’s 1961 suborbital missions by Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom, America’s first men in space.

      

Woodson: First, Pay Your Fair Share of Taxes

Jeff Bezos’s space explorations don’t excite me. I 

view this as I view dead beat dads who drive expensive vehicles but don’t make child support payments.

According to ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization that investigates abuses of power, Bezos’s wealth exploded by $3.8 billion in 2007.  In that year and in 2011, he paid no federal income taxes. Between 2006 and 2018, his wealth increased by $127 billion and he paid a .98 per cent tax rate. During the same period, the median household in the United States earned $70,000 per year and paid a 14 per cent tax rate.

Following his flight, Bezos made unintelligible comments about Americans one day traveling into space when the earth becomes unlivable. A seat on that first flight went to the highest bidder at $28 million. That seems out of reach for most Americans.

Bezos said later, “I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this.” Mr. Bezos, Americans paid for “all this.” We held the country together with our tax dollars while you withheld yours for your private project.

Robert Reich, President Clinton’s first labor secretary, responded, “Amazon workers don’t need Bezos to thank them. They need him to stop union busting – and pay them what they deserve.”

Bezos should pay his fair share of taxes and let the American people decide when they want to spend money on space exploration. We need him to help the rest of us strengthen our social safety net, save the planet from greenhouse gases, and rebuild our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools.       

Rob:  A Mixed Bag

Few Americans cared more about space exploration than I did during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo days. I rose at the crack of dawn for launches, missed school a few times, and could name every

astronaut in NASA’s first four groups. I was into it. I still am. I believe space exploration benefits humankind in general and the United States in particular through technological advancement, national security, and scientific progress.

Space exploration, manned and unmanned, can help us address problems like climate change, energy inefficiency, and manufacturing processes. I do not, therefore, condemn the efforts of billionaires as they vie for a role in space exploration.  As one commentator pointed out after the Bezos flight, many things we take for granted began with a wealthy person experimenting with something that seemed far-fetched and just another pleasure for the idle rich. SCHEDULED commercial air service? Nah, that’ll never work.  

Having said that, I’m not unsympathetic to the arguments of the critics, including my brother Walker. Both those who contend billionaires should spend their resources on other things (like higher

wages for their employees) and those who argue space exploration is a job for government have a point. I thought about that as I watched Bezos take off. But, it was still fun. I’m a sucker for rocket launches. Always have been. Always will be.      

Henry:  Discovery

I don’t find billionaires investing in space exploration difficult. It’s not my focus in this post. I agree with Woodson’s sentiment and  hope those moneyed interests will use their funds to invest in space exploration and in practical and immediate efforts that benefit humankind. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. The issue reminds me of the love I have had, and still have, for flight and space exploration.

As a kid I collected model airplanes and subscribed to every publication I could on flight and space. My

junior high career book detailed a career in the Air Force as a test pilot and space explorer. I sought appointment to the Air Force Academy to further that dream, but my senators weren’t ready.

Today, my cell phone contains Skyview, NASA, Skywalk, and Satellite Tracker apps. I may have

cared more about space exploration than Rob during the early days. I agree with him on the benefits of space exploration. An aspect of the human spirit demands this stretch of the imagination and investigation of the difficult and

seemingly impossible. My longing tugs at philosophical and spiritual components. That we still reach for the stars strengthens my faith in our ability to carve a path toward our destiny. We are a part of all that space contains.

              If in a twinkle lies eternity

               and all we discover is known

               all encompassing must be the Power

               to hold us and time for so long

 

                If I am stretched from boundary to boundary

                and yet can be reduced to less than a single atom

                where lies that in between for all 

                and rushes forth for each of us to complete

 

                If we are but a single thought

                strung throughout Eternity

                of what wonderful thread

                to form us are we sewn 

AMERICA’S MOON ANNIVERSARY: BIG IDEAS AND BIG STEPS, PAST AND FUTURE

This week marks the 50^th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing. On July 16, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin Aldrin lifted off aboard Apollo 11, powered by the mammoth Saturn V booster. On July 20, Armstrong guided the spidery lunar module Eagle to a harrowing landing on an orb withonly one-sixth of the earth’s gravity. Armstrong and Aldrin left Eagle and explored the Sea of Tranquility while Collins orbited above in the command ship Columbia. Eagle’s successful lunar liftoff and rendezvous with Columbia led the astronauts home for a tumultuous global welcome.

        Left to Right: Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin and launch of Apollo 11                   

Numerous books and television documentaries are out commemorating thelanding. Some relive the mission while others generally celebrate the American space program. One book that focuses on the political and leadership story behind Apollo 11 caught our attention. In American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race, historian Douglas Brinkley details how presidential leadership made the lunar landing possible. He highlights two critical points about Apollo 11: (1) it evolved from a person possessed with big ideas, and (2) it spawned unanticipated technological advancements. 

JFK’s Audacious Pledge

President Kennedy addressed Congress May 25, 1961, telling lawmakers he believed the United States should commit itself to, “before this decade is out,” landing a man on the moon and  returning him safely to earth. At the time, the United States had 15 minutes of manned space flight experience – Alan Shepard’s suborbital ride in his Freedom 7 Mercury spacecraft 20 days before. While the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) hierarchy cheered Kennedy’s bold approach, many wondered how they’d accomplish such a task.

Brinkley demonstrates they succeeded because of Kennedy’s leadership skills and

Kennedy & Johnson

unwavering devotion to the idea the United States could accomplish big goals if it focused on the task and devoted the needed resources. Kennedy (and Vice President Lyndon Johnson) worked tirelessly in getting the needed funding. Kennedy also provided the rhetorical lift that kept the nation’s eyes on the prize. That included his famous September 1962 Rice University speech in which he said, “…we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills….”  

President Kennedy speaking at Rice University September 12, 1962

A huge incentive for the American space effort lay in Cold War competition with the Soviet Union. It wasn’t always certain the Soviets were racing the United States to the moon. Knowing that, Kennedy nevertheless made clear if there was a race, the United States couldn’t lose.

         

Landing on the moon, and Kennedy’s success in steering America toward that milestone, showed small thinking, wavering, and inconsistent dedication in pursuit of goals won’t cut it. Like Moses’s commitment to lead the children of Israel from more than 400 years of bondage, it hadn’t been done before. There was no template. Moses was simply committed to its attainment. Apollo achieved its objective despite opposition from both congressional budget cutters and activists who preferred spending the program’s $25 billion cost on human needs. Kennedy’s big project did face obstacles. 

Was it Worth it?

After 30,000 hours of simulations, the United States won the race to the moon. No one has been  back since the last American flight in 1972. But the benefits of Apollo continue. Even if NASA was just a consumer of Tang, not its inventor as the popular myth goes, space exploration offered humankind massive everyday benefits. Consider some advances Brinkley names:

• HIGH ENERGY METAL FORMING PROCESSES;
• DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNIQUES FOR USING LIQUID OXYGEN IN STEELMAKING;
• DEVELOPMENT OF COATINGS FOR TEMPERATURE CONTROL IN BUILDINGS;
• DEVELOPMENT OF EFFICIENT SYSTEMS FOR TRANSFORMING CHEMICAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY;
• IMPROVEMENTS IN MEDICAL EQUIPMENT LIKE THE MRI;
• DEVELOPMENT OF NEW COATINGS FOR PLYWOOD AND FURNITURE;
• IMPROVEMENTS IN METALS, ALLOYS, AND CERAMICS; AND
• DEVELOPMENT OF RADIATION MONITORING INSTRUMENTS. 

This list barely scratches the surface. We learned, from the moon rocks, about the age of the solar system. We didn’t even mention computer technology, a field that got a major boost from space exploration. Other things influenced that industry, but spaceflight played a big part in improving computing systems.

             

              The Sun and planets

Big Ideas – Small ideas

Landing on the moon during the 1960s was a big idea. In 1961, when the Soviets launched the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin, andremembering that in 1957 they put up Sputnik, the first satellite, Kennedy wondered what the U.S. could do that would “leapfrog” the Soviets. Brinkley provides an entertaining look into how Kennedy’s team arrived at the moon-landing-within-the-decade idea as the way of accomplishing that. Kennedy thought big. He wanted his people thinking big, something we have far too little of today. America now appears anxious only for incremental advances. 

Kennedy’s marshalling of America’s political, scientific, and managerial resources for the moon mission makes us ask what big idea the United States could take on and conqueror today. Many reasons explain the small thinking that now dominates – fear of big government, tax cut mania, partisan bickering, concern one group might get too far ahead of another. We know, however, America doesn’t lack big problems it could tackle. Climate change. Immigration. Racial justice. Income inequality. Poverty. Cancer. They’re all out there, waiting for the people and the right President. It’s not like it hasn’t been done before.