New space race warrants optimism

Last weekend, Virgin Galactic completed a successful flight into space. The crew of six included the maverick British tycoon and Virgin Galactic’s founder, Sir Richard Branson.

As a Boilermaker, I was delighted to see two Purdue grads on the crew. Sirisha Bandla and Beth Moses served as mission specialists on the short flight. While our football teams frequently struggle and our men’s basketball team has never won the NCAA tournament, Purdue grads walked on the moon. I digress…

Amazon founder and fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos plans to leave the planet in his own spacecraft within the next couple of weeks. Along with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, private corporations are leading the way to the final frontier.

This is a dramatic change in humanity’s quest to reach the stars. Previously, nations led the charge into space. Virgin Galactic and Bezos’ venture, Blue Origin, plan to take well heeled tourists into space. The price tag to ride a rocket is enormous. I guess these tourists have seen all there is to see on Earth.

We are living through some terrible times. They could be taken right out of the pages of a dystopian science fiction novel. Political divisions fractured American society. A violent mob threatened the seat of American government. There appears to be no end in sight in the ongoing culture wars. The COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 600,000 Americans.

But I am optimistic about this new space race. Perhaps it can bring us back together. Maybe we can unify just for a few minutes to watch a launch and ponder the universe.

Without a doubt, there are some serious questions surrounding the commercialization of space. What kind of society do we live in where billionaires play with the most expensive toys ever created and get into a pissing contest about who was first into space — while millions of people are starving? Is this the best use of resources when we face environmental catastrophes and a political divide which threaten our future? What is the ecological impact of these spaceflights?

But the new journeys into space might inspire us to create a better society. I hope it excites and encourages young people to solve our problems and build an idyllic future.

The Apollo 11 moon landing took place during another troubled time in American history. The year before, assassins killed Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. The United States was bogged down in a bloody and futile war in Vietnam. The country was sharply divided.

But for a brief moment during the turbulent 1960s, Americans came together. Humanity came together. For centuries, humanity longed to reach the heavens. Over 600 million human beings watched Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.

The space race of the 1960s paid enormous dividends. It provided for new technologies with applications beyond traveling into space. Many NASA engineers and scientists would pioneer new computing technologies, paving the way for Silicon Valley and fueling tremendous economic growth for the United States.

Many of those working in the space industry cite another 1960s phenomenon, Star Trek, as an inspiration for their work. Star Trek inspired me, too. Gene Roddenberry gave an optimistic vision of the future. The show famously embraced diversity. Humans no longer struggled for the basic essentials of life. In Star Trek, there was peace on Earth.

The journey to a better world in the 23rd century will be a long one. Maybe we just took one small step.

Aaron Miller is one of The Republic’s community columnists and all opinions expressed are those of the writer. He has a doctorate in history and is an associate professor of history at Ivy Tech Community College — Columbus. Send comments to [email protected].