During the week, SpaceX became the first private company with an operational system to launch NASA astronauts to space and back. The Crew-1 mission is the first launch with a full crew.

This is the second manned crew SpaceX has launched. Back in May, SpaceX launched the Crew Dragon to the ISS with Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley along for the ride. After a couple of months, the two NASA astronauts returned home in August.

Crew Dragon took off at 7:27 pm EST with the Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The NASA astronauts who are aboard “Resilience” are Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Micheal Hopkins. The fourth astronaut on board is from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soichi Noguchi. The plan, according to The Verge, is for the crew to spend a day in space and then have the capsule dock autonomously onto the ISS without the crew’s help.

After the successful launch, Elon Musk tweeted out, of course, a heart emoji:

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 16, 2020

President-Elect, Joe Biden, congratulated SpaceX and NASA, calling it a “testament to the power of science.”

Congratulations to NASA and SpaceX on today’s launch. It’s a testament to the power of science and what we can accomplish by harnessing our innovation, ingenuity, and determination. I join all Americans and the people of Japan in wishing the astronauts Godspeed on their journey.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 16, 2020

President Donald Trump called it “great” and that NASA was a “closed up disaster” when his administration took over and that it has now returned to the “hottest” and most advanced space center in the world.

A great launch! @NASA was a closed up disaster when we took over. Now it is again the “hottest”, most advanced, space center in the world, by far! https://t.co/CDCGdO74Yb

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020

More is yet to come. Tomorrow at 11:00 pm ~ EST, the Crew-1 capsule will perform an autonomous dock to the ISS.

You can watch the live stream on SpaceX’s website, Youtube channel, and NASA’s youtube channel.

Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator, welcomed Behnken and Hurley home in a tweet.

We have SPLASHDOWN! Welcome home @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug! #LaunchAmerica

— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) August 2, 2020

A video by Live Science shows remarks given at the welcome home ceremony in Huston, Texas. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, spoke about his relief, what the successful mission means, and what the future holds:

“I do think what this heralds really is fundamentally a new era in spaceflight. We’re going to go to the moon, we’re going to have a base on the moon, we’re going to send people to Mars and make life multiplanetary and I think this day heralds a new age of space exploration. That’s what it’s all about…I think, like, my entire adrenaline just dumped, you know? Like, thank God,” Musk said. “I’m not very religious, but I prayed for this one.”

Elon Musk also points out that there is little good news during a global pandemic, but he hopes that the successful launch brightens someone’s day.

The purpose for the Demo 2 mission was that it was the final test for SpaceX’s human spaceflight system to get certified by NASA to be able to conduct regular trips to the ISS. With the successful launch, SpaceX’s plan to travel beyond the ISS and make humanity multiplanetary has been set in motion.

Although NASA has invested in several Mars missions before, this is probably its most ambitious one. It was announced in 2012 and the purpose of the mission was to study the planet at a deeper level than what has been done so far. The rover would mainly be collecting evidence that would be studied in laboratories on Earth to determine if Mars harbored microbial life in the past.

A similar was launched by NASA in the past. In 2012, the Curiosity rover landed on Mars to discover the mineral life on the planet. When the mineral samples that the rover brought were analyzed, scientists discovered that there may have been microbial life on the planet. It has since been eight years and NASA is now launching this new mission to find further evidence to support these claims.

One of the reasons why a new mission is being launched after so long is because the technology required for it is incredibly complex. The agency had to invest a lot of time- and money- into research and development as this technology has never been used before. As per NASA, the Perseverance rover is fitted with seven “state-of-the-art tools for acquiring information about Martian geology, atmosphere, environmental conditions, and potential signs of life (biosignatures).” It will be the first-ever rover to gather and store samples from the surface of Mars so that they can be later retrieved and brought back to Earth by astronauts on a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Another reason why the rover is a first of its kind is that it is equipped with high-definition cameras with top-notch imaging features. Not only this, but it will also have HD microphones to capture the sounds of Mars- another thing that has never been done before. The sounds that will be captured include entry, descent, landing, and driving on the terrain.

The rover will also carry two technological demonstration missions (TDMs) with it called MOXIE and Ingenuity. MOXIE stands for Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment which is designed to test the technology that can convert carbon dioxide to oxygen in Mars’s atmosphere. This is important as it would allow scientists to determine whether or not people can be sent to Mars. Ingenuity is a rotorcraft or helicopter that is capable of flying on Mars. It will also provide scientists with crucial information on the gravitational forces on Mars, which will in turn allow them to design a rovercraft that is ideal for the planet’s conditions. This testing serves as an important purpose and is crucial to achieving the goal of Mars colonization as these rovercrafts can serve as delivery systems.

This is a mission that has been in the works for a long time and NASA was planning on completing it within a particular time frame. However, the COVID-19 pandemic was a major setback that pushed deadlines. One significant challenge that NASA faced was assembling integrations during the final phases of the mission’s development, as a large majority of NASA and JPL staff were working from home. Omas Baez, the senior launch director, said “I never would have thought that a launch director would be working from home and I’ve done that for the last five months,” and that “It’s humbling to see how our whole team from the range, to our partners at JPL, to our partners at ULA, to our folks at headquarters – how we all had to adjust to work in this environment, to work electronically.” Despite the setbacks imposed by the pandemic, they were still able to launch the rover by the target date.

The original launch date was July 18, which is at the very start of the interplanetary liftoff window that generally lasts a month. Another challenge, apart from the lockdown resulting from the pandemic, was regarding a crane at the Vertical Integration Facility. The ULA had to spend a few days dealing with this, which pushed the launch date to July 22. This was further delayed to July 30, as explained in a press release from NASA, “due to launch vehicle processing delays in preparation for spacecraft mate operations.”

The Atlas V (541 configuration) consists of a common core booster and four rocket motors that are carrying a payload that is 197 feet tall. The rocket provided a thrust of 2 million pounds, which rocketed the spacecraft away from Florida and towards the Atlantic Ocean. The separation between the two stages of the rocket happened after around 90 seconds of flight, as the rocket motors were exhausted. This coat phase lasted around 30 minutes, after which the Centaur completed another nominal burn lasting around 8 minutes. It delivered the payload to a heliocentric, rather than Earth-bound, orbit.

After the separation, the Perseverance rover was propelled towards Mars and the Centaur (in the upper-stage) performed a maneuver known as the blowdown. This is done to prevent it from entering Mars, providing planetary protection. Approximately 20 minutes after this procedure, Perseverance started sending signals to Earth via its transmitter. These signals were received by the transmitters at NASA’s Deep Space Network, which has arrays of giant antennas.

This interplanetary journey and exploration of the red planet with the Perseverance rover will continue for years to come as NASA is planning on another launch on February 18, 2021.

Post this successful take-off, many more launches happened from the launchpad (some that weren’t so successful): the Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003. However, the US hasn’t had a launch system for nearly a decade. Every time it had wanted to send people to the International Space Station, it had to rely on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft, lifted off from Kazakhstan.

While NASA was contemplating what to do with a launch facility that is rusting away, a new customer emerged: the tech genius Elon Musk who had made billions of dollars selling his e-banking company PayPal to eBay. He also founded the automobile company Tesla and the space transportation company SpaceX. After contacting NASA, Musk was given a 20-year lease on the site.

That was great news for him but he wasn’t the only participant in the space race. The billionaire founder of the retail company Amazon and the aerospace manufacturing company Blue Origin Jeff Bezos was also bidding for NASA launch pads. After Musk was given permission to use the 39A complex, Bezos was able to lease out the complex next to it: No. 36. This was the historic launchpad from which space probes were launched to Venus (in the 1970s) and Mars (in the 1960s).

It was only two Saturday’s ago on the 30th of May that something revolutionary yet again happened at 39A. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon was launched into space taking NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station. The event was witnessed by millions of people all across the world, bringing America back into the game (“Launch America” was the name given to the event). Every aspect of the launch, from the spacecraft to the launchpad, belonged to an American company- SpaceX. This places the company in an incredibly powerful position, putting it head-to-head with only two other superpowers in the field of space: Russia and China. But how did this happen?

The first change happened in 2010. The NASA space shuttle program was nearing its end, which was about the time when the Obama administration decided to invest government resources differently. Rather than having NASA transport cargo and put people into orbit, it would instead channel its resources and expertise into conducting deep space ventures such as preparing humans to go to Mars. NASA would work on building a heavy-lift space launch system (SLS) and a spacecraft, called Orion, that would take off on it.

Alongside these efforts, the government was also encouraging private companies to develop SLSs for near space ventures, an example being moon tourism. It would even underwrite the launches, ensuring that a portion of the risk is borne by the government.

Note that these private companies are not competing with NASA. NASA is not only investing in these companies, it is also paying them for their services- it is their biggest customer. To illustrate, the company has invested over $8 billion in Boeing and SpaceX over the last 10 years, with a majority of those funds being reserved for the manufacturing of spacecraft and launchers. The remaining amount is set aside for purchasing 12 flights to the ISS. Six will be launched in Musk’s Crew Dragon and the other six in Boeing’s Starliner, which will be launched sometime in early 2021.

Clearly, this worked. NASA was able to harness the efficiency benefits- both in terms of cost and time- of privatization by contributing to the development of two separate space launch systems at only half of the cost that the government would have incurred. This was mainly because these ventures were also able to attract a few billionaire investors.

Despite this, there are a few things that are long overdue. NASA’s SLS is yet to be inaugurated and the launch of Orion has also been postponed. Meanwhile, Chinese rovers have landed on the moon.

China

Beijing has invested huge amounts of capital, especially human capital, into its space exploration programs in an attempt to not be left behind in the race. It is the current launch leader with 34 of the 102 launch vehicles in space being Chinese while only 27 are American. For this year, the country has set a milestone of sending at least 48 satellites, shuttles, and other space vehicles into orbit. Its target is the moon and a Chinese astronaut (or taikonaut as they are called) may plant the country’s flag on the satellite soon enough.

This is the reason that Donald Trump, in just his first year as the President, signed an executive order that directs NASA to land the next American on the moon no longer than 2024. This year, NASA has pitted three companies- including Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin- against each other to accomplish this mission. The incentive? A development grant of $1 billion. We may know who the winner is by early 2021.

But what about NASA’s SLS and Orion spacecraft? And the mission to Mars? All of these projects are on hold as of now and the organization hasn’t announced when it will start working on them again. For now, the priority is winning the race to the moon.

Private aerospace companies have always been instrumental in American space missions. The launch vehicle that took Armstrong and Aldrin to the moon? It was built by Boeing. The capsule in which they landed on the moon? It was manufactured by the Grumman Corporation. However, it is different this time as previously, equipment was simply purchased from private companies and used by the government. Now, the entire process- from manufacturing to deployment- is in the hands of private companies, namely SpaceX and Blue Origin. The government’s only role is as the bank and underwriter. After Musk and Bezos’ leases end, the high-tech space equipment, that are more powerful than those developed back in the day by a superpower like the Soviet Union, will remain in the hands of the billionaires.

In 2018, SpaceX had already launched a spacecraft into orbit. Specifically, it launched a red Tesla Roadster car in a Falcon Heavy launcher flight. It was even fitted with a stereo system that played David Bowie’s Starman as it entered into orbit. Whether Musk was honest about his intention to inspire people about the prospect of space travel or whether this was a move that was meant to boost Tesla’s stock price, it nevertheless showed people what the future of space travel holds. Musk will be able to send more than just cars to more than just the moon. We may be able to use SpaceX’s commercial space travel service to even take a trip to Mars.

To get to the Crew Dragon launch site, astronauts Behnken and Hurley drove in a Tesla Model X. There is still some contention over this. Having landed on the moon, the Apollo 8 crew recited verses from the Book of Genesis. Atheists sued the government on the basis that using public funds for religious propaganda is wrong. But what about broadcasting the latest model of Tesla to millions of people? Can public funds be used for car advertisements?

Mainly, these funds are being used to send NASA astronauts to space in a privately manufactured aircraft. And the same funds are also being used by Musk to achieve his mission of expanding humanity into space and allowing people to settle on Mars. NASA may or may not be involved. If Musk and Bezos decide not to help the government after all, they will be directly competing with NASA. If this situation comes to pass, the US will separate into 2 distinct entities in the space race: on one hand, there’s NASA, representative of the public sector, and on the other, there are two billionaires, representative of the private sector. But what exactly does this mean for national identity? If the first ‘flags’ planted on Mars are those of SpaceX or Blue Origin, does it mean that America was the first to land on Mars?

Cause for Concern

It is important that the development of spacecraft is done sustainably to prevent light pollution and the accumulation of space debris. Light pollution mainly occurs because of the glare caused by the reflection of light on the spacecraft and when they pass in front of celestial objects.

However, this is not necessarily how it is being done by SpaceX. The company is working on the launch of 13,000 satellites for its internet services company Starlink, which aims to not only provide internet in every corner of the Earth but also every corner of space- a development that is crucial for Mars settlements.

This is causing some problems. The light pollution caused by the satellites is preventing astronomers from seeing celestial objects. One of the satellites also nearly collided with a satellite launched for research by the European Space Agency last year. In the future, any spacecraft launched into space must be thoroughly sterilized to prevent space contamination.

These countries and companies also have immense power in deciding who gets to go to space and who doesn’t. For a long time, it was mainly in the hands of Americans and Russians. America, for instance, had invited the late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon on a space mission, given the amicable relationship between both countries (a Chinese or Iranian astronaut was never invited).

Similarly, Bezos and Musk get to decide who sits and flies to space on their spacecraft. Given that Alibaba is an Amazon competitor, SpaceX and Alibaba could partner up so that Musk has a leg up in the competition (and so that he can provoke Bezos). Maybe Musk would allow the retail giant to set up a package delivery system to his complex on Mars. Or maybe Jack Ma would be the first ever tourist. It won’t be surprising if Musk did something like this given his and Bezos’ longstanding, and sometimes childish, rivalry (two exhibits being the ‘time to break up Amazon’ and ‘copycat’ incidents).

Setting this aside, it must be acknowledged that space travel is highly lucrative for these companies. NASA administrator James Bridenstine says that the total worth of the space economy is at $383 billion annually. This is higher than Israel’s GNP. The real gems are not satellite launches, they are space tourism and mineral mining, especially in asteroids or moons. High start-up costs were previously a huge barrier to entry that prevented private companies from entering these markets. However, with their founders’ billion-dollar net worths and some government subsidies, they were able to get started. These companies didn’t limit their exploration to just near space- they also expanded into deep space. Can we expect the same ruthless corporate efficiency that they showed for their companies here on Earth? Undoubtedly, yes.

That is not necessarily a good thing. For example, despite a turnover of around $11 billion in 2018, Amazon didn’t pay a single cent in corporate tax. Moreover, nearly 10% of Amazon employees working in warehouse facilities are earning below minimum wage, requiring government assistance to meet their most basic needs. Many of them fear wasting time on toilet breaks so they urinate into plastic bottles. How will Bezos’ mercilessness play out in his space travel attempts? It would probably be just as bad, if not worse.

However, Musk is the one who has become a monopoly in commercial space travel. About 65% of all international space contracts come to him. Before Crew Dragon, he launched more mass into space than Russia, China, and Europe combined. Bezos, meanwhile, is selling Amazon shares, trying to enter the market.

Just as for everything, we can argue both for and against big business, especially in technology. On one hand, services like Amazon, PayPal, and Google have made our lives incredibly easier with their ingenious inventions. On the other hand, wealth inequality is widening, human rights are being violated, and these companies are above being held accountable by the government. This is not a reputation that companies venturing into space travel should have, so we must proceed with caution.

The @SpaceX Crew Dragon is rolled out to the launch pad and raised vertical ahead of the launch of @NASA astronauts @AstroBehnken & @Astro_Doug from @NASAKennedy to the @Space_Station. More #LaunchAmerica Photos: https://t.co/8due5jBg5Y pic.twitter.com/OeAeMIjxsh

— NASA HQ PHOTO (@nasahqphoto) May 21, 2020

On May 20, both astronauts arrived at Kennedy Space Center in preparations for the big day. Just a day later, May 21, Falcon 9 and Dragon were mated and raised vertical on Launch Complex 39A for an upcoming static fire.

NASA and SpaceX will conduct a Flight Readiness Review to resolve any final issues before launch day. On May 25, NASA will host a press conference to discuss the results of the Flight Readiness Review.

The finalized #SpaceX #CrewDragon launch weather commit criteria for next week. #Demo2 #Falonc9 #NASA pic.twitter.com/oyD0Bqacq4

— Chris G – NSF (@ChrisG_NSF) May 20, 2020

SpaceX is closely watching weather conditions for the 27th. According to Benji Reed, the SpaceX Director of Crew Management, says there is a “very high chance of scrub due to the weather.” If the mission is in fact delayed, the next available date is presumably three days later, May 30th. It is clear that SpaceX will be taking all of the precautions necessary for their first crewed launch.

In preparations for the launch, SpaceX also released some new infographics for the mission layout. It is similar to SpaceX’s Commercial Resupply Service missions.

You can watch the historic SpaceX launch on spacex.com and nasa.gov/live