On Tuesday, NASA announced its new official partnerships with aeronautics companies Boeing and SpaceX. After NASA retired the space shuttle in 2011, the organization would send their astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) via the Russian Soyuz program, costing $70 million for each seat (six seats each year are the norm). The $6.8 billion contracts, 4.2 for Boeing and 2.4 for SpaceX, further solidifies NASA's plans "to establish safe, reliable, and cost effective access to space" and to allow private companies to do so.
In the past, privatizing space was unheard of and up until recently, NASA only partially funded certain companies in their space-going endeavors (Boeing receiving over $100 million from NASA previously). This full-fledged shift to private space contracts means the companies involved will get the funding they need to establish the access to space they want and that the money for these contracts will stay in the U.S. Since 2011, NASA has had to send their astronauts over to Kazakhstan or Russia and pay the Russians for access to their spacecraft. Now, not only does this contracted money stay in the country, it also supports these companies that are blazing the trail for space travel. While a downside to only awarding two contracts (Boeing and SpaceX) is that there may not be a lot of competition between firms, not only are these companies not alone but this is just the beginning. Other firms like Sierra Nevada and Virgin Galactic, among others, are also right in the thick of things in this new space age and the recent announcement of the NASA contracts is just the first of many. This shift to privatizing space in not only saving NASA money and getting humans one step closer to Mars and other destinations, it is also announcing the beginning of a new space race, one with the competition of capitalism at its heart, and can only bode well for the U.S. and the world as we move forward into this bright future.
Boeing, SpaceX Land NASA Contracts
This is so exciting to hear about! Bringing space travel back within our boarders not only keeps the money here, but think about all the job opportunities that are going to come up! Jobs for people to create the parts that will make the spaceships, research and development jobs, and of course the astronauts that will be in the ships! This will certainly have many benefits to our country that have even yet to be foreseen!
ReplyDeleteBy bringing this "new space race" to the US, you are creating many jobs and many other positive benefits for the US. I am excited to see where this goes because this very well could be the next big thing, space travel. This will save the US money by not having to pay Russia anymore for their equipment, and create many new revenue opportunties for the US.
ReplyDeleteNot only is this a really exciting aspect in and of itself, the implications of it positively affecting the economy is encouraging. The main effect, as many have already noted, is the impending increase of jobs; construction, research, development, and many other vastly different branches provide a wide assortment of job opportunities for those with a specific skill sets.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting that NASA has now decided to ramp up the space race. I am curious as to why private companies and organizations would want additional access to space? On the other hand, it is great that additional jobs will be created as well as increased research and development. Our generation was not around for the original space race so this should be exciting to hear about.
ReplyDeleteI think private companies want at space is because of the tremendous potential of the industry along with how early we are into this business even being possible. In the past, it was unheard of for anyone other than NASA to even try going to space but now that the business has emerged (and NASA's budget being cut significantly), it is very possible and the different companies are on a relatively even playing field because of how early we are into this being a thing. Each company has the chance to get a big breakthrough which will lead to big money. A very specific example of how lucrative the space business can be is that of Planetary Resources. PR plans to land a probe on an asteroid, mine its contents, and bring the material back to Earth for use. In the past, this would have sounded like something from a science fiction movie but now, as the Rosetta craft approaches its landing site on an asteroid, the possibility of asteroid mining in the near future seems very possible. Asteroid mining has billions of dollars of potential and no one has done it yet so improving the state of space access will make it possible for it to be done.
DeleteWhat I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around is who is the market for this? How many people are willing to spend 70 million a seat to go to space? While I understand private companies sending satellites into space, I do not see the profitability in sending passengers to space and back again. While this is an interesting development, I cannot see this lasting in the long run.
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