| Introduction The Artemis program, NASA's ambitious plan to send humans back to the moon and then to Mars, remains intact after the change in presidential administrations — a rarity for the space agency. But the program appears increasingly unlikely to meet its 2024 deadline for landing astronauts on the lunar surface in preparation for a crewed mission to Mars in the 2030s. Meanwhile, other countries, most notably China, are sending robotic probes to the moon and Mars, spurring speculation that a new international space race is underway. The U.S. military increasingly views space as a future theater of war and has marshalled its resources — including the newly created U.S. Space Force — to counter Russian and Chinese development of anti-satellite weapons. The U.S. aerospace industry is also playing an increasingly important role, developing new rockets for the Artemis program and enabling NASA to end its reliance on Russia for transportation to the International Space Station. Meanwhile, several companies are competing to claim a dominant role in a fast-growing industry: space tourism. 
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter made the first powered flight by an aircraft on another planet, Mars, in April. It is pictured here near NASA's robotic exploration vehicle, the Perseverance rover. The agency is part of what some experts say is a new space race as China and other countries also plan missions to Mars. (Getty Images/NASA) | Go to top Overview It lasted only 39 seconds, but the debut flight of NASA's Ingenuity helicopter 10 feet over the surface of Mars on April 19 was one for the history books. “Absolutely beautiful,” MiMi Aung, Ingenuity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif., said of the first powered flight by an aircraft on another planet. “I don't think I can ever stop watching it over and over again.” 
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, in hat, and his brother Mark, right, celebrate their July 20 flight in Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket. The other passengers were Oliver Daemen, 18, the youngest-ever space traveler, and the oldest, Wally Funk, 82, who passed NASA's astronaut training program in the 1960s but was denied a chance to go to space because of her gender. (Getty Images/Joe Raedle) | By July 19, Ingenuity had taken eight more flights, including one in which it nearly spun out of control due to a navigational glitch. Weighing just under four pounds, the solar-powered helicopter plays a starring role in NASA's Mars exploration program, which aims to land humans on the planet in the 2030s after first sending two astronauts — a man and, in a historic first, a woman — to the moon in 2024. One of those astronauts will be a person of color. But NASA's moon-to-Mars plan — known as Artemis — continues to struggle with expensive delays that could threaten its timeline. On the day Ingenuity made its maiden flight, the agency's inspector general released a report questioning whether it can meet its November launch date for Artemis I, in which an uncrewed Orion space capsule will shoot into space aboard NASA's Space Launch System rocket and orbit the moon before returning to Earth. “The agency faces significant challenges that we believe will make its current plan to launch Artemis I in 2021 and ultimately land astronauts on the Moon by the end of 2024 highly unlikely,” the report said. It projects NASA will spend $86 billion on the program — far more than original estimates. In a more positive development, the Space Launch System's core stage performed flawlessly in a crucial test on March 18, clearing the way for NASA to move the stage to the Kennedy Space Center, where the entire rocket will be assembled with the Orion capsule attached. Space exploration, meanwhile, is increasingly becoming a global activity, spawning new international partnerships along with competition among the world's great powers. For example: India hopes to land a rover — a remote-controlled, robotic exploration vehicle — on the moon and send astronauts into space next year. Japan has budgeted a record $4.1 billion for space activities next year and is teaming up with India to send a rover to the moon by 2024. Russia is planning to send five probes to the moon over the next several years and is working with the European Space Agency to send a rover to Mars. Moscow is also working with China to develop a lunar research station, in direct competition with NASA. China aims to build its own space station by the end of next year and send astronauts to Mars in 2033. The European Space Agency plans to send an orbiter to Venus in the early 2030s to study why it developed so differently from Earth. The Artemis program is, itself, an international undertaking. Canada is providing the robotics, and a Canadian astronaut will participate in Artemis' first crewed mission around the moon in 2023. Japan will help NASA build the Gateway, an outpost that will orbit the moon and serve as a waypoint for astronauts headed to the lunar surface. Other countries will help NASA establish a permanent base at the moon's South Pole in preparation for an eventual human mission to Mars. Glossary of terms. Source: Compiled by CQ Researcher staff Data for the graphic are as follows: | Term | Definitions | | Artemis | Long-term NASA plan to return humans to the moon and later send them to Mars | | Artemis Accords | International agreement governing the use of outer space, signed by the United States and 11 other countries | | Crew Dragon | SpaceX capsule that in 2020 became the first privately owned spacecraft to carry a crew into orbit | | Dragonfly | Future NASA mission that will explore Saturn's moon Titan | | Falcon Heavy | SpaceX rocket NASA plans to use to launch parts of Gateway | | Gateway | Orbiting lunar outpost to be built by NASA and Japan | | Ingenuity | Small, robotic NASA helicopter operating on Mars and the first aircraft to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet | | National Space Council | White House council that advises the president on space policy | | Orion | Space capsule that NASA plans to use to carry astronauts to the moon and Mars | | Perseverance | NASA rover conducting research on Mars | | Space Launch System | Super-heavy-lift rocket that will launch Orion capsule into space | | Starship | Reusable rocket and space capsule that SpaceX will use for missions to Mars and other deep-space destinations. | | Tianwen-1 | Chinese spacecraft orbiting Mars | | U.S. Space Command | Previously inactive combatant command reactivated by President Donald Trump in 2019 and responsible for military operations in space | | U.S. Space Force | New military branch created by President Trump in 2019 that trains and equips personnel who would fight for U.S. Space Command | Mars is the next big prize in space, largely because the planet was once quite similar to Earth and may have harbored life. It is also much easier to explore and potentially colonize than Venus, which is closer but whose surface is hot enough to melt lead. In February, a United Arab Emirates orbiter and China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft began circling Mars, making those countries the fifth and sixth, respectively, to orbit the so-called red planet. On May 14, the Tianwen-1's lander and rover descended to the surface, making China the second country, after the United States, to land a spacecraft on Mars. Such developments have spurred speculation that the world is engaged in a new space race, although some experts say other countries have a long way to go to catch up to NASA's achievements. “When we say ‘space race,’ it sort of implies at least two actors who are really very close in capability, and I'm not sure that's exactly the case quite yet,” says Wendy Whitman Cobb, an associate professor of strategy and security studies at the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. Still, U.S. officials are impressed with China's achievements, which coincide with deteriorating relations between Beijing and Washington over trade, cyberwarfare, espionage and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese officials insist their intentions in space are peaceful, but U.S. officials increasingly view China — and Russia — as potential threats there. 
Museum visitors look at a lunar rock and debris on display in Beijing. China collected the samples on a recent moon mission and plans to work with Russia on a lunar research station, in competition with NASA. (Getty Images/Kevin Frayer) | “China and Russia have weaponized space as a way to deter and counter a possible U.S. intervention during a regional military conflict,” the Pentagon said in a June 2020 report. Future international competition in space may also focus on mining asteroids and the moon for minerals — such as iron, nickel, palladium and platinum — to serve a market potentially worth $3.9 billion by 2025. A study published in October by the Southwest Research Institute, a research and development organization in San Antonio, Texas, said the 16 Psyche asteroid located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter could consist entirely of iron and nickel. If so, it would be worth more than Earth's entire economy. But experts say asteroid mining could be years away. “We're a very long way from even knowing if it's going to be economically viable to do this,” says Todd Harrison, director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank. Profits from space tourism are closer at hand, as the founders of top aerospace companies — including Elon Musk of SpaceX, Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin and Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic — compete in a “billionaire space race.” For example: Axiom Space, a space tourism company in Houston, is charging three wealthy investors $55 million each to ride to the International Space Station next January aboard a SpaceX spacecraft. Virgin Galactic has sold about 600 tickets at between $200,000 and $250,000 each for trips to the edge of space, beginning next year. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is paying more than $110 million for a ride around the moon in a SpaceX spacecraft in 2023. On July 20, Bezos and his brother flew with two history-making passengers 66.5 miles above the Earth in Blue Origin's reusable New Shepard rocket. The other passengers were Oliver Daemen, 18, of the Netherlands, who became the youngest person to travel to space, and Wally Funk, 82, who became the oldest. Funk passed NASA's astronaut training program in the 1960s but was denied a chance to go to space because of her gender. Daemen took the spot on the flight originally meant for the anonymous winner of an online auction for the one paid seat. That person, whose winning bid was $28 million, backed out, citing “scheduling conflicts,” and decided to ride on a later flight. Daemen's father, wealthy investor Joes Daemen, also participated in the auction and had secured a seat on Blue Origin's second flight. Money earned from the auction will go to Blue Origin's foundation, Club for the Future, which works to build interest in science and technology careers. “Right now we have a mission life, we think, of somewhere between 25 and 100 flights for one of these vehicles,” Bezos said at a press conference after the 10-minute trip. “We'd like to make that closer to 100 than to 25. And once it's close to 100, we'll push it past 100…. We're going to build a road to space so that our kids and their kids can build the future. And we need to do that to solve the problems here on Earth.” In a recent poll, more than six in 10 Americans said monitoring the Earth's changing climate and tracking asteroids that could strike the planet were important priorities. Just one in three said sending astronauts to the moon or Mars was an important goal. Source: Sam Sabin, “Nearly Half the Public Wants the U.S. to Maintain Its Space Dominance. Appetite for Space Exploration Is a Different Story,” Morning Consult, Feb. 25, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/28bvn5za Data for the graphic are as follows: | Space Policy Priority | Percentage Who Say it is a Top Priority | Percentage Who Say it is Important, but a Lower Priority | Percentage Who Say it is Not Too Important | Percentage Who Say it Should Not be Done | Percentage Who Don't Know/Have No Opinion | | Monitoring the Earth's climate system | 35% | 28% | 18% | 7% | 11% | | Monitoring asteroids that could strike Earth | 27% | 35% | 22% | 5% | 11% | | Developing tech not just for space exploration | 19% | 35% | 24% | 8% | 13% | | Searching for natural resources | 19% | 34% | 27% | 8% | 12% | | Conducting research to understand space | 15% | 34% | 31% | 8% | 12% | | Research on space travel's health effects | 12% | 28% | 36% | 12% | 11% | | Searching for new life, habitable planets | 12% | 26% | 36% | 14% | 12% | | Sending astronauts to the moon | 8% | 25% | 42% | 14% | 12% | | Sending astronauts to Mars | 7% | 26% | 39% | 16% | 12% | | Sending civilians to Mars or the moon | 6% | 18% | 39% | 24% | 12% | On July 11, Branson beat Bezos into space by nine days, flying 53.4 miles above the Earth with two pilots and three other passengers in a test flight of Virgin Atlantic's SpaceShipTwo Unity, designed for tourist flights. The spacecraft launches from the belly of an airplane rather than launching vertically from the ground. Critics of such flights say space tourism advocates are tone-deaf to the global warming calamity overtaking the Earth, a crisis that disproportionately affects people who can least afford a ticket on a billionaire's spacecraft. A 2010 study suggested that emissions from 1,000 private rocket launches a year could raise temperatures at the Earth's poles by 1 degree centigrade. “In the emergence of the climate crisis, it's not a good example at all to start doing this kind of tourism activity,” said Annette Toivonen, a researcher and lecturer on space tourism at Finland's Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. Musk, Branson and Bezos have all raised concerns about climate change. Last year, Bezos started a $10 billion fund to support action on global warming. And Musk and Branson have pledged to finance research into carbon dioxide removal technologies. 
Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX, speaks after the 2019 launch of the company's astronaut capsule to the International Space Station. A year later, SpaceX became the first private company to carry a crew — two NASA astronauts — into orbit and is among a handful of companies seeking to commercialize space tourism. (AFP/Getty Images/Jim Watson) | Musk and Bezos also have ambitions far beyond space tourism. Musk says he plans to establish a permanent settlement on Mars and make humans “a multiplanetary species.” In December, he said he is “highly confident” SpaceX will land humans on Mars by 2026, which would put the company on the Martian surface before NASA. Bezos has his own visions for colonizing space. “We need to take all heavy industry, all polluting industry, and move it into space,” Bezos said at a press conference after the Blue Origin flight on July 20. “That's going to take decades to achieve, but you have to start.” Even as commercial aerospace companies pursue their own agendas, some are playing crucial roles in advancing NASA's moon-to-Mars plan. At least eight companies — including SpaceX, Boeing and Blue Origin — are helping NASA end its reliance on Russia to send cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station since the U.S. space shuttle program ended in 2011. In addition to its other challenges, NASA has volunteered to take on a new task: investigating “unexplained aerial phenomena” that Navy pilots have reported seeing for years. A U.S. intelligence report released on June 25 offered no definitive explanation for the sightings. Nowhere does it suggest that the strange airborne objects might be evidence of alien technology, but NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is not ruling out the possibility. (See Short Feature.) “If the universe is that big … is there likelihood of life? My answer is yes,” he said. NASA has said its overall goal is “U.S. pre-eminence in space exploration, science, technology development, and aeronautics — all to the benefit of the American economy.” Already, that economy relies heavily on 2,505 U.S. satellites orbiting the Earth, providing rapid access to data for communications, weather forecasting, military operations, information technology and other demands. “The infrastructure of space is critical to our daily lives,” says Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington. Go to top Background Détente in Orbit After years of competing for dominance in space, Washington and Moscow entered a new spirit of cooperation in the 1990s, after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The two superpowers collaborated in building the International Space Station, and the orbiting lab's first components, including one built by Russia and carried into orbit on a U.S. space shuttle, were launched in 1998. At that time, China's space program still depended heavily on copying foreign technology. But the following two decades saw Beijing make determined efforts to advance its space exploration program — and develop technologies for waging war in space. “China showed a commitment to developing an offensive military space capability aimed at possible use against the United States in a future regional conflict,” said James Clay Moltz, a national security professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. The late 1990s and early 2000s also saw the rise of space tourism. In 2001, U.S. millionaire entrepreneur/engineer Dennis Tito became the world's first space tourist, spending $20 million for a ride to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket and an eight-day stay at the orbiting lab. 
The space shuttle Discovery, mounted atop an airliner, arrives in 2012 at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., on its way to permanent display at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. NASA ended the shuttle program in 2011, forcing the agency to rely until last October on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to transport U.S. astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station. (Getty Images/Library of Congress/Corbis Historical) | Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — SpaceX for short — in 2002 to achieve his goal of eventually carrying payloads and humans to Mars. The company went on to deliver a series of ground-breaking achievements. In 2008, for example, SpaceX became the first private company to send a liquid-fueled rocket into orbit, and last year its Crew Dragon spacecraft flew two NASA astronauts to the space station, making SpaceX the first aerospace company to send a crewed craft into space. NASA's space shuttle program, which began sending spacecraft into orbit in 1981, ended in 2011, after the George W. Bush administration had concluded in the mid-2000s that it was too expensive and NASA needed to focus on other priorities, including sending astronauts to Mars. That same year, Congress passed the Wolf Amendment — named for its sponsor, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. — barring NASA from teaming up with China on scientific projects, including the space station, due to concerns that Beijing was stealing technology from U.S. companies and NASA. Donald Trump's 2016 election to the presidency brought another in a long string of mission shifts for NASA. Trump scrapped President Barack Obama's plan to send astronauts to an asteroid as an interim step toward a Mars mission. Instead, Trump revived Bush's idea of returning astronauts to the moon before sending a crew to Mars in the 2030s — a strategy that became NASA's Artemis program. By 2018, SpaceX was moving rapidly to claim a dominant role in the private satellite business, launching prototypes for what would eventually become a “constellation” — called Starlink — of about 1,500 satellites providing high-speed internet to remote locations. Revenue from the venture, which astronomers complain impedes their ability to study the stars, will help finance Musk's plan to send astronauts to Mars. Militarizing Space NASA initially set a deadline of 2028 for a return to the moon, but in 2019 the Trump administration moved that deadline up by four years, citing the need to compete with China and Russia in what Vice President Mike Pence described as a new space race. Critics of the change said Trump mostly wanted to claim a major space victory in a potential second term. 
Chief Master Sgt. Roger Towberman and Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett present President Donald Trump in May 2020 with the flag of the U.S. Space Force, which Trump created as a separate military branch to organize, train and equip service members to fight in a space-based conflict. (Getty Images/Samuel Corum) | In 2019, Trump, concerned by signs that Moscow and Beijing were developing anti-satellite weapons, reconstituted the U.S. Space Command — inactive since 2002 — to prepare for and conduct military operations beginning 60 miles above the Earth and extending throughout the universe. That same year, he also created the U.S. Space Force as a separate military branch to organize, train and equip the military personnel who would fight at the command's direction in any space-based conflict. NASA's Artemis program was already experiencing serious delays and cost overruns by the time the agency unveiled details of the program's moon landing schedule in May 2019. NASA's inspector general issued reports in 2018 and 2020 blaming the delays on lax management by NASA and poor performance by aerospace giant Boeing, the prime contractor on the Space Launch System. The coronavirus outbreak created further delays last year. International cooperation, however, became one of the program's greatest successes. NASA solidified that cooperation in May last year by unveiling an international agreement — the Artemis Accords — that the agency describes as “a common set of principles to govern the civil exploration and use of outer space.” The nonbinding agreement includes guidelines for sharing scientific data and mining resources found on the moon, Mars and asteroids. As of July 4, 11 countries, all participating to some degree in the Artemis program, had joined the United States in signing the accords. Go to top Current Situation Spending At Issue The Artemis program suffered yet another setback in December, when Congress approved only $850 million in fiscal 2021 for the system that will transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon's surface — about a quarter of the $3.3 billion NASA had requested. In response, the agency abandoned its plan to have two private spaceflight companies develop backup landers, in case one lander malfunctioned. Instead, it awarded a $2.9 billion contract in April to SpaceX to continue building a reusable rocket and spacecraft collectively known as Starship. NASA halted work on the contract, however, after two competing companies — Blue Origin and defense contractor Dynetics — filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office. The office will decide by Aug. 4 whether NASA should award a second contract for a lander. Meanwhile, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chair of the Senate panel that oversees NASA, has proposed $10 billion through fiscal 2026 for NASA to pay for two landers. Cantwell represents Washington state, where Blue Origin is based. The Senate passed Cantwell's proposal on June 8, but the measure has yet to come up in the House. Despite the halting progress on the Space Launch System, President Biden supports Artemis, a rare instance of a space program surviving a change of administrations. He also has not proposed delaying the moon landing, although his NASA administrator, Nelson, a former Democratic senator from Florida and a former astronaut, has conceded that the 2024 deadline may be impossible to meet. The last time humans walked on the moon was in 1972 during NASA's Apollo 17 mission. Biden's proposed budget for fiscal 2022, which begins Oct. 1, would boost spending on Artemis by about 5 percent, to $6.9 billion. The budget proposal seeks $1.2 billion for a single lunar lander and would increase by about 500 percent what NASA pays commercial spaceflight companies to carry crew and cargo to the International Space Station and to develop private space stations that could someday replace the international station. The president also requested $17.4 billion for the U.S. Space Force in fiscal 2022, up about 15 percent over what Congress appropriated last year. “The Space Force is absolutely needed because we are heavily dependent on space and we are incredibly vulnerable in space,” says Harrison of CSIS. Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to oversee the National Space Council, which reviews U.S. space policy and makes recommendations to the president. Significantly, Biden proposed no funds for carrying U.S. astronauts or cargo to the International Space Station on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. A Soyuz flight in October marked the last time NASA paid for a seat on the rocket, at a cost of $90 million — although U.S. astronauts will occasionally fly on Soyuz for free as part of a barter arrangement with Russia. SpaceX and Boeing will take over the paid flights, with NASA paying SpaceX about $55 million per seat and Boeing about $90 million, according to NASA's inspector general. 
Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, left, and Sergey Ryzhikov speak from the International Space Station in April to mark the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight, which occurred when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth in 1961. That year, President John F. Kennedy vowed to land U.S. astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade. (Getty Images/TASS/Vyacheslav Prokofyev) | A poll of U.S. adults in February showed 61 percent support Biden's decision to keep the Space Force. But sending astronauts to the moon and Mars ranked eighth and ninth, respectively, among 10 space-related priorities. Monitoring Earth's climate and tracking asteroids that might collide with Earth were bigger concerns. (See Graphic.) Whitman Cobb, of the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, says government space exploration programs typically poll poorly. But enthusiasm for space travel in general is growing, she says, thanks to the accomplishments of SpaceX and other private spaceflight companies. “Tens of thousands of people tune in to … webcasts of their tests down in Texas,” she says of SpaceX. China's Rise The problems plaguing NASA's moon-to-Mars efforts are especially vexing in the context of China's rapid advances in space. In December, China became the third country, after the United States and Russia, to bring moon rock samples back to Earth. “Beijing is working to match or exceed U.S. capabilities in space to gain the military, economic, and prestige benefits that Washington has accrued from space leadership,” U.S. intelligence officials said in a 2021 annual threat assessment report. Blocked from the International Space Station by the Wolf Amendment, China launched the first section of its own space station in April and sent the first of four crewed missions there on June 17. And it has plans for its own Mars base and crewed mission to that planet. “That should tell us something about our need to get off our duff and get our human landing system going vigorously,” Nelson told U.S. House lawmakers on May 19. Wu Yanhua, deputy chief of China's National Space Administration, has said China aims to be “among the major space powers of the world.” U.S. officials note that China has developed anti-satellite weapons such as ground-based lasers, orbiting space robots and “kinetic-kill missiles” that could destroy an opponent's satellites by crashing into them at high velocity. “Our competitors, most notably China and Russia, have militarized [the space] domain,” Army Gen. James Dickinson, head of U.S. Space Command, said in January. U.S. officials cast China as the greater threat because of its rapid gains in space and its determination to supplant the world order created by the United States and its allies — through the United Nations and other international bodies — with its own authoritarian system worldwide. Other experts, however, say the threat posed by China is not that dire. “They are a potential threat, but I do think it has been overhyped,” Whitman Cobb says. China and Russia have criticized the Artemis Accords as a U.S. bid to claim sovereignty over the moon and other celestial bodies. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's space agency, Roscomos, called the agreement “U.S. centric” and said U.S. officials “see their [space] program not as international, but similar to NATO.” “There is America, everyone else must help and pay,” Rogozin told a Russian magazine. Russia's decision not to sign the accords came a few months after Moscow and Beijing agreed to work together on a lunar research station. Harrison says the partnership shows that China, unable to participate in U.S. space research, “is trying to create a coalition that would be in competition with NASA for doing science and exploration on the moon and in low Earth orbit.” Russia also threatened in June to leave the International Space Station by 2025 unless U.S. officials lift sanctions imposed during the Trump administration targeting companies with alleged ties to Russia's military. The sanctions are hindering Russia's ability to build satellites, according to Moscow. China and Russia describe the United States as the primary threat in space, citing creation of the U.S. Space Force. “If others want to oppress us by occupying the heights of space and opening up a ‘fourth battlefield,’ China will certainly not accept it,” Qiao Liang, a major general in the Chinese air force, said in 2019. SpaceX Dominates If the sole lunar landing contract that NASA awarded in April remains in effect, the next astronauts on the moon will arrive in a SpaceX Starship. NASA also will launch components of the Gateway moon-orbiting way station in 2024 using another SpaceX rocket, the Falcon Heavy. Unlike NASA's launching system, the rocket powering SpaceX's Starship is reusable, as the company demonstrated on May 5, when a prototype flew to 33,000 feet over Texas then landed vertically back on the ground six minutes later. Musk says the Starship will cost only $2 million per launch, compared to an estimated $2 billion for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), feeding speculation that NASA may someday abandon its system in favor of Starship or another privately developed spacecraft. “It's not clear that the SLS is going to be [NASA's] long-term vehicle of choice,” Harrison says. But Whitman Cobb notes that NASA's launch system is popular in Congress with lawmakers whose districts benefit from the jobs it creates. “I don't think you can get rid of it politically,” she says. Go to top Outlook Future Missions One of the biggest challenges in transporting astronauts to Mars, whether in NASA's Orion capsule or a SpaceX Starship, is the distance involved — 34 million miles if the trip begins when the Earth and Mars are closest together. During the six-month trip to Mars and while on its surface, astronauts will be exposed to massive amounts of cosmic and solar radiation, and the weightless environment inside a space capsule will erode their bone density and heart function. The approximately three-year mission also will challenge astronauts mentally, as they deal with the stress of working together in a confined space. “You'd like to cut down the amount of time it takes” to reach Mars, says Pace at the Space Policy Institute.” You don't want to spend a lot of time in free space.” To address such concerns, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin and General Atomics are working to develop a nuclear thermal propulsion system that would power spacecraft at much faster speeds than conventional systems allow. Once astronauts reach Mars, their ability to survive will depend heavily on previous work done by NASA rovers. On April 22, the Perseverance rover converted Martian carbon dioxide into enough oxygen for an astronaut to breathe for about 10 minutes. NASA hopes to return Perseverance to Earth with soil samples from the Martian surface in 2031. Other upcoming NASA space exploration projects include: Two missions to Venus between 2028 and 2030 to study the planet's surface and atmosphere and gather information on how the planet, which shares some characteristics with Earth, became the hellishly hot environment it is today. The launch of the James Webb telescope, now set for November, to replace the Hubble Space Telescope used for studying the universe's oldest stars and galaxies. An October launch of a probe to study the Trojan asteroids, which share Jupiter's orbit around the sun and contain what NASA says are “vital clues about the formation of our solar system.” A 2024 mission to learn whether Europa, a moon orbiting Jupiter, might be capable of sustaining human life. A 2027 mission called Dragonfly that will use a drone-like rotorcraft to explore Saturn's moon Titan. “America has always had a frontier,” Nelson said in his first State of NASA speech on June 2. “At the beginning of our country, that frontier was westward. Now that frontier is upward. It's out into the cosmos.” Go to top Pro/Con Pro
Board Member, METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) International; Professor emeritus, social anthropology, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia. Adapted from a Scientific American Blog Post, July 2021 | We know now that Earth is the only planet in the solar system with intelligent life, but ours is a tiny portion of a vast universe. Even as we become a spacefaring people, astronomers are locating numerous planets circling other stars, and some of these planets may sustain life. Astronomers and environmentalists are teaching us the same lesson, that we are all citizens of this one planet. This does not mean that we are alone; our planet may have intelligent neighbors. Why not talk to them? Yes, such a conversation must be slow, given the distances between star systems and the brevity of a human lifetime. But even as we learn to connect with and respect our planet's other species, we can do the same with the rest of the neighborhood. This is a part of the path towards maturity, for Homo sapiens. METI — messaging, rather than just listening for, extraterrestrial intelligence — helps move us along that path. Somewhere in the vastness of space, beings may exist who could help us improve conditions here on Earth, and whose good opinion we desire. In ancient times, we looked to the stars for guidance (some still do). Today, we should look to the stars for fellow space travelers and witnesses to our own evolution. Critics of METI worry that at some point in our interstellar door-knocking we will knock on a door belonging to the sort of hostile, technologically advanced aliens portrayed in H.G. Wells' science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds. But such a possibility is vanishingly small. It is more likely that any extraterrestrials more advanced than we are simply are not interested in us, perhaps because we are too immature. And if they were hell-bent on destroying us, why aren't they already here? After all, we have been sending radio waves into space for more than 100 years. We are facing massive dangers of our own devising, and the risks involved in reaching out to other intelligent species are minuscule compared to the possibility that such contact will help us see ourselves as part of an interstellar community and lessen our own self-destructive tendencies. The risks of no METI are much greater than the risks of METI. It is time for us to act like grownups — otherwise, what will the neighbors think? | Con
Scientist, Author, Co-founder, Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. Written for CQ Researcher, July 2021 | Technological breakthroughs have enabled researchers to sift through interstellar static with fine-toothed combs in a patient, relentless — and, so far, frustrating — search for extraterrestrial intelligence (known as SETI). For a vigorous and curious species like humanity, SETI is among the most worthwhile quests. But passively sifting for techno-signatures from beyond our solar system is worlds removed from the practice — known as Active SETI — of sending powerful electromagnetic signals into deep space. Even the late Carl Sagan, one of the greatest SETI supporters and a deep believer in the notion of altruistic alien civilizations, called Active SETI deeply unwise. He recommended that we spend more time patiently listening to the universe and learning a lot more about planets and life, before shouting into a cosmos that we are only just beginning to understand. Consider what has happened on Earth when civilizations of vastly different capabilities came into contact: slavery, colonialism, plagues and destruction of the less “advanced” culture's way of life. Many times across billions of years, entire swathes of species became extinct when the movement of land masses threw them together with species that had evolved in different ecosystems. I am not claiming that is what will happen when we make contact with aliens. In my profession, I portray contact scenarios covering the whole range, from pessimistic to hopeful. But we should at least consider and discuss the implications of what we are doing before actively shouting into the heavens. If aliens are so advanced and altruistic, and yet are choosing to remain silent, should we not do likewise, at least for a little while? Is it possible they are silent because they know something we don't? Proponents of Active SETI argue that any alien civilizations out there likely have already picked up the media signals we've been broadcasting and that it's too late to stay silent. Careful science shows that cliché is simply untrue. But even if they're right, what are they aiming to achieve? Those proponents seek to amplify our detectability a billion-fold! You don't do that if “they already know about us.” The search for extraterrestrial intelligence has so far come up dry. But before we let our frustration shift our rules of engagement with the cosmos, we must acknowledge potential risks and at least open a wide conversation about these concerns. Our very existence may ultimately be on the line. | Go to top Discussion Questions Here are some issues to consider regarding the exploration of space: China and Russia are making rapid advances in space technology and have vowed to undertake space exploration on their own, without cooperating with the United States and its allies. Do you think this is dangerous or wasteful? Or will it spur healthy, innovative competition? Billionaires have begun establishing their own private space tourism companies. Critics say such an industry will exacerbate climate change by emitting massive amounts of greenhouse gases from the fossil fuels burned in such flights. Others say the flights will make the travelers more aware of the fragility of Earth's atmosphere. Do you think space tourism would be a good thing or a bad thing for the environment? Do you think the United States should have retired the space shuttle in 2011? Should NASA be planning a trip to Mars, or focusing its resources on studying how climate change is affecting the Earth? Some people say humans should be trying to contact life on other planets, while others say that is very dangerous. What do you think? Go to top
Chronology
| | | | 1950s–1980s | United States and Soviet Union compete for dominance in space. | | 1957 | Soviets launch Sputnik satellite into orbit, setting off a space race with the United States. | | 1961 | Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to orbit the Earth…. President John F. Kennedy vows to land astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade. | | 1962 | Astronaut John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth. | | 1967 | Outer Space Treaty negotiated by the United States, Soviet Union and United Kingdom bars weapons of mass destruction in outer space and says celestial bodies are exempt from national ownership claims. Another 107 countries eventually sign the accord. | | 1969 | U.S. declares victory in space race when astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes first human to set foot on the moon. | | 1970 | President Richard Nixon sharply reduces NASA's budget to bring it in line with other domestic programs…. China and Japan launch first satellites. | | 1981 | The space shuttle Columbia becomes the first such craft to make it into space. | | 1984 | Commercial Space Launch Act aims to increase the private sector's role in U.S. space programs. | | 1990s–2000s | Moscow and NASA cooperate on International Space Station (ISS) after collapse of Soviet Union; the commercial spaceflight industry emerges. | | 1998 | Commercial Space Act requires NASA to look at ways to foster commercial spaceflight industry…. First components of ISS are launched into orbit, with assistance from Russia. | | 2002 | Businessman Elon Musk founds space exploration company SpaceX, which later expands to include space tourism, internet satellite services and other ventures. | | 2003 | Space shuttle Columbia disintegrates during re-entry, killing all seven crew members. | | 2004 | President George W. Bush unveils Constellation Program to return humans to the moon and send them on to Mars…. NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers find evidence that lakes and rivers once existed on Mars. | | 2007 | China destroys one of its own weather satellites to test an antisatellite weapon. | | 2008 | SpaceX becomes first private company to send a liquid-fueled rocket into orbit. | | 2010–Present | Space agencies around the world plan moon and Mars missions; U.S. officials warn that Russia and China are weaponizing space. | | 2010 | President Barack Obama cancels Constellation Program in favor of sending astronauts to an asteroid by 2015 and into Mars orbit by the mid-2030s…. NASA awards almost $50 million to five U.S. companies to help develop a replacement for the space shuttle. | | 2011 | NASA retires the space shuttle and begins relying on Russia to transport people and supplies to the ISS…. NASA unveils Space Launch System rocket booster designed to take astronauts to Mars. | | 2015 | SpaceX's Falcon 9 becomes the first rocket to launch a spacecraft into orbit and then land back on Earth. | | 2017 | President Donald Trump cancels Obama's asteroid program and resurrects Bush-era moon-to-Mars plan, later named Artemis. | | 2019 | Trump creates U.S. Space Force as a separate military branch. | | 2020 | NASA's inspector general says Artemis moon-to-Mars program is experiencing cost overruns and delays…. NASA unveils Artemis Accords to guide the peaceful exploration and commercial use of space; Russia and China are not among 12 countries that sign on…. SpaceX flies two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, becoming the first private aerospace company to send a crewed craft into space…. Pentagon officials say Russia and China are weaponizing space to gain a military advantage over the United States…. NASA stops relying on Russia for trips to the ISS and instead will use spacecraft from Boeing and SpaceX…. China becomes third country, after the United States and former Soviet Union, to bring moon rocks back to Earth. | | 2021 | China and Russia agree to build a research station on the moon (March)…. NASA's Ingenuity helicopter takes first flight on Mars (April)…. NASA's inspector general calls it “highly unlikely” agency can land astronauts on the moon in 2024 (April)…. President Biden proposes increasing Artemis budget by 5 percent (April)…. China launches first section of its Tianhe space station (April)…. A SpaceX Starship prototype lands vertically back on Earth after launching into space (May)…. China becomes second country after the United States to deploy a rover on Mars (May)…. NASA says it will launch two probes to Venus (June)…. Billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos take their first voyages into space to advertise their future space tourism businesses (July). | | | | Go to top Short Features Commander David Fravor knew his training mission flying off the coast of San Diego was about to head in a very strange direction when an operations officer aboard the U.S.S. Princeton in the carrier group below asked him a strange question: Was his F/A-18F Super Hornet carrying any live weapons? Fravor replied that it was not. The officer then directed Fravor to take a look at a strange airborne object, one of many the Princeton had been tracking for two weeks. The objects would appear abruptly at 80,000 feet of altitude, then plummet to 20,000 feet, hovering over the Pacific Ocean before shooting straight back up. A short time later, Fravor saw something he still cannot explain — a object about 40 feet long shaped like a Tic Tac, with no wings or visible means of propulsion, moving erratically just above the ocean and causing the water to churn. When Fravor approached it, the object sped away faster than anything he had ever seen. 
U.S. Navy pilots have reported over the years seeing strange airborne objects moving in ways that seem to defy explanation. Intelligence officials released a report in June summarizing more than 140 incidents since 2004 of these “unidentified aerial phenomena,” such as the one in this screenshot. (Screenshot) | “I can tell you, I think it was not from this world,” he said. Other Navy pilots nearby that day in November 2004 confirmed his account. On June 25, U.S. intelligence officials released a report summarizing their analysis of that incident and more than 140 others between 2004 and this year in which military pilots said they observed strange airborne objects. In one, a Navy video from 2019 shows a spherical object moving back and forth for several minutes before descending slowly into the ocean off the coast of San Diego. One sighting turned out to be a deflating weather balloon, but the report offered no explanation for the 143 other accounts of what it called “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP), or what the general public calls unidentified flying objects (UFOs). In some of those encounters, the report said, UAPs “appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernable means of propulsion.” Shortly before the report was released, a Navy pilot told CBS' “60 Minutes” that he had seen UAPs “every day for at least a couple years.” Most of the UAPs were observed by pilots and registered on radar and other sensors, but without “additional rigorous analysis” they could not be identified, the report said. It also said the objects threaten the safety of pilots and would pose a national security risk if developed by a potential adversary such as China or Russia. The report never mentioned the possibility that the objects are extraterrestrial, but it has fed speculation that they are products of alien technology. The report comes after the emergence of other possible evidence over the years that intelligent life may exist elsewhere in the universe. In 2017, for example, a mysterious object — the first known interstellar visitor to our solar system — sped past the sun at an astonishing 196,000 miles per hour, accelerating in a way that defied easy explanation. Harvard astrophysicists Abraham Loeb and Shmuel Bialy theorized that the object, dubbed ‘Oumuamua, could be powered by a “lightsail” pushed by solar radiation. Alternately, a more exotic scenario is that “‘Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization,” they wrote in a 2018 paper. Most other scientists, however, dismissed such theories. Two Arizona State University astrophysicists, Steven Desch and Alan Jackson, concluded earlier this year that the object was most likely a piece of a planet from another solar system. Another incident fueling the debate over the possible existence of intelligent aliens took place on Aug. 15, 1977, when a telescope at the “Big Ear” radio observatory at Ohio State University picked up a strange, powerful radio signal lasting 72 seconds. The signal “is highly suggestive of extraterrestrial intelligent origin,” John Kraus, the observatory's director at the time, wrote in a letter to astronomer Carl Sagan. Last November, an amateur astronomer identified the possible source of the transmission as a star in the constellation Sagittarius, 1,800 light years away. But it was never detected again. Although those incidents and the UAP sightings by military pilots are not definitive proof of intelligent extraterrestrial life, many scientists say that such life almost certainly exists among the trillions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy and beyond. A study last year led by researchers at the University of Nottingham in Britain concluded there could be about 36 advanced civilizations in the Milky Way alone. But the vastness of space also makes it unlikely that humans will find such civilizations, other experts say. “There's a high statistical likelihood of intelligent life-forms having evolved elsewhere in the universe, but a very low probability that we'll be able to communicate or interact with them,” Hakeem Oluseyi, an astrophysicist and president-elect of the National Society of Black Physicists, wrote in The Washington Post on June 19. Meanwhile, the prospect of finding simple life on other planets and moons seems much more likely: In September, scientists said they had detected a gas called phosphine in the highly acidic clouds around Venus, indicating that microbes may exist in the clouds. Researchers at the University of Arizona and Paris Sciences & Letters University reported in June that something underneath the icy surface of Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons, is producing methane, which could indicate the presence of microorganisms. A study published in April in the journal Astrobiology says rocks located in groundwater just under the surface of Mars could produce the chemical energy needed to support microbes. Scientists believe water once flowed abundantly on Mars and may be trapped in the planet's crust. NASA's Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in February, is looking for evidence of microbial life on the planet. As for the UAP sightings, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, a former astronaut, wants his own people to investigate the incidents and come up with answers. “The bottom line is, we want to know,” he said. — Val Ellicott
Bibliography
Books
Johnson, Sarah Stewart, The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World, Crown, 2020. A planetary scientist at Georgetown University explains how she and other researchers have searched for signs of life on Mars and what the planet's history tells us about Earth.
Launius, Roger D., Apollo's Legacy: Perspectives on the Moon Landings, Smithsonian Books, 2019. NASA's former historian offers new insights on how the Apollo space program changed the United States politically, culturally and technologically.
Walker, Stephen, Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space, Harper, 2021. A dramatic account of the Soviet program that made Yuri Gagarin the first man in space in 1961 and fueled the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Articles
Davenport, Christian, “As China's space ambitions grow, NASA tells Congress it needs more money to compete,” The Washington Post, June 17, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/4ex5dwcb. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson depicted China as a serious threat to the United States in space as he asked Congress for more money for his agency's moon-to-Mars plan, but some experts say that goal is flawed.
Koren, Marina, “Elon Musk Is Maybe, Actually, Strangely, Going to Do This Mars Thing,” The Atlantic, May 6, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y2sr22k9. A magazine writer looks at the origins of SpaceX founder Elon Musk's quest to land humans on Mars and how that effort has dramatically altered the small Texas beach town where his company tests its rockets.
Mahshie, Abraham, “Russia and China Could Team Up to Challenge US Space Superiority, Experts Say,” Air Force Magazine, June 29, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/8wnf6sdu. Space policy analysts say Russia hopes to tap China's technological expertise to blunt the effect of U.S. sanctions while gaining a military advantage over the United States in space.
Oluseyi, Hakeem, “Intelligent life probably exists on distant planets — even if we can't make contact, astrophysicist says,” The Washington Post, June 19, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/rpezsuce. The president-elect of the National Society of Black Physicists says intelligent extraterrestrial life almost certainly exists somewhere among the hundred billion trillion stars in the universe, but the vast distances in space make it unlikely that humans will ever make contact with an alien species.
Sabin, Sam, “Nearly Half the Public Wants the U.S. to Maintain Its Space Dominance. Appetite for Space Exploration Is a Different Story,” Morning Consult, Feb. 25, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/w2yye4yw. U.S. adults surveyed in February ranked sending astronauts to the moon and to Mars eighth and ninth, respectively, among 10 space-related priorities, behind such tasks as monitoring climate change and tracking asteroids that could strike Earth.
Reports and Studies
“Artemis Status Update,” Office of the Inspector General, NASA, April 19, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/8v2rfh9d. NASA's watchdog says the agency is “highly unlikely” to meet its 2024 deadline for landing astronauts on the moon, partly because of delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic and a shortfall in congressional funding for a key component.
“Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China,” U.S. Defense Department, Sept. 1, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/s2sduzt3. In an annual report to Congress, defense officials say China continues to develop weapons designed to achieve a military advantage in space, including ground-based lasers, orbiting space robots and missiles designed to destroy satellites.
Harrison, Todd, et al., “Space Threat Assessment 2021,” Center for Strategic & International Studies, March 31, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/h4w4c. Aerospace experts at a bipartisan research organization analyze recent advances in anti-satellite weaponry around the globe and say Russia has been particularly aggressive in testing such weapons.
Videos
Matthews, Dylan, “UFOs are real. That's the easy part. Now here's the hard part,” Vox, June 18, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/2t4978fr. A news story about unidentified airborne objects seen by Navy pilots beginning in 2004 includes videos of five such objects.
Go to top The Next Step Exploring Mars “NASA's Mars Helicopter Reveals Intriguing Terrain for Rover Team,” NASA Science, July 12, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/eesu9bkw. Images of Mars snapped by the Ingenuity helicopter are helping NASA scientists prepare future routes on the red planet for the Perseverance rover. Breeden, John, “Mars Helicopter Continues to Soar with Open-Source Software,” Nextgov.com, July 14, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/75axvxnb. Ingenuity is built with commercially available parts and uses free open-source software, which allows members of the public to build their own version of the Mars helicopter or adjust the software for use in other applications. Chow, Denise, “In an ultraviolet glow, auroras on Mars spotted by UAE orbiter,” NBC, June 7, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/pxmndk5x. Vivid images of auroras on Mars captured by the United Arab Emirates' spacecraft could help scientists better understand the planet's atmosphere and magnetic field. Militarizing Space Howell, Elizabeth, “US Space Force has new guidelines for working at and around the moon,” Space.com, June 29, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/bbvtbk4d. A new report gives the U.S. Space Force guidelines for operating near the moon, where the competing gravitational forces of the sun, moon and Earth can cause instability. Machi, Vivienne, “Germany establishes new military space command,” Defense News, July 13, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/3eekkf6s. Like the United States and the United Kingdom, Germany is creating a separate military command dedicated to space. Pawlyk, Oriana, “No Plans for Space Force PT Test Yet,” Military.com, July 13, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y5tykf2r. The U.S. Space Force is still developing physical training standards unique to its service; for now, members are using Air Force guidelines. Private Spaceflight Berger, Eric, “SpaceX will soon fire up its massive Super Heavy booster for the first time,” ArsTechnica, July 14, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/yjt6wfm3. The private company SpaceX is testing rockets and ground systems for a new spacecraft but has yet to obtain Federal Aviation Administration approval for a test launch. Bryan, Susan Montoya, “New Mexico betting on Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic success for tourism boost,” USA Today, July 13, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/54naxju8. New Mexico built the space port that Virgin Galactic used for the flight Richard Branson took to the edge of space and hopes the publicity will bring tourism to the state. Howell, Elizabeth, “Elon Musk unveils SpaceX's newest drone ship for rocket landings at sea,” Space.com, July 12, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/6hj6necm. SpaceX founder Elon Musk revealed a third autonomous ship that functions as a seaborne landing pad for his company's rockets. Space Race “Chinese astronauts make first spacewalk outside new space station,” The Associated Press, July 5, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/be3ujdte. Two Chinese astronauts conducted the first spacewalk outside their country's new orbital station, which will be expanded in the coming months. Berger, Eric, “Russia's space chief wishes his oligarchs invested in space like Branson and Musk,” Ars Technica, July 13, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/pvf5tc6m. The leader of Russia's main state space corporation lamented on Twitter that Russian oligarchs spend money on yachts and vanity projects instead of developing space technology like billionaires Elon Musk and Richard Branson. Howell, Elizabeth, “China picks up the launch pace with three space missions in four days,” Space.com, July 7, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/wh3ymatb. China has returned to its prepandemic practice of launching satellites and spacecraft in quick succession, while tightly controlling all publicity surrounding the launches. Go to top Contacts Coalition for Deep Space Exploration
700 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Suite 200, Washington, DC 20003
832-864-7224
exploredeepspace.com
Alliance of space industry businesses and advocacy groups promoting the benefits of deep space exploration. The Mars Society
11111 West 8th Ave., Unit A, Lakewood, CO 80215
303-980-0890
marssociety.org
Advocacy organization focusing on exploration and settlement of Mars. NASA
300 E St., S.W., Suite 5R30, Washington, DC 20546
202-358-0001
nasa.gov
Federal agency that conducts human and scientific exploration of space. Space Foundation
4425 Arrowswest Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80907
719-576-8000
spacefoundation.org
Advocacy organization that educates the public about space exploration and encourages the development of space-related industries. Space Policy Institute
Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, 1957 E St., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, DC 20052
202-994-1592
spi.elliott.gwu.edu
Conducts research and organizes seminars and conferences on domestic and international space policy. SpaceX
Rocket Road, Hawthorne, CA 90250
310-363-6000
spacex.com
Private spaceflight company founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk that aspires to land humans on Mars and create self-sustaining colonies there. U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission
444 North Capitol St., N.W., Suite 602, Hall of the States, Washington, DC 20001
202-624-1407
uscc.gov
Group created by Congress to monitor and report on national security concerns linked to U.S.-China relations in space and other areas. Go to top
Footnotes
Go to top
About the Author
Val Ellicott is a Washington-based writer and editor and a former editor at CQ Researcher. Before that, he worked for 14 years as an editor at Gannett and USA Today in Washington, and spent 12 years covering investigative stories, court news and the medical beat at The Palm Beach Post in Florida. He received a masters degree in journalism in 1986 from Columbia University.
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Document APA Citation
Ellicott, V. (2021, July 23). Space exploration. CQ researcher, 31, 1-23. http://library.cqpress.com/
Document ID: cqresrre2021072300
Document URL: http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2021072300
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Jul. 23, 2021 |
Space Exploration |
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Feb. 21, 2020 |
The Mars Mission |
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Aug. 04, 2017 |
New Space Race |
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Jun. 20, 2014 |
Search for Life On New Planets |
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Feb. 24, 2012 |
Space Program |
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Aug. 16, 2011 |
Weapons in Space |
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Oct. 16, 2009 |
Human Spaceflight |
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May 23, 2003 |
NASA's Future |
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Jul. 23, 1999 |
New Challenges in Space |
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Apr. 25, 1997 |
Space Program's Future |
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Dec. 24, 1993 |
Space Program's Future |
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Mar. 29, 1991 |
Uncertain Future for Man in Space |
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Jul. 31, 1987 |
Space Race |
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Feb. 07, 1986 |
Space Decisions after Challenger |
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Feb. 18, 1983 |
American Options in Space |
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Nov. 10, 1978 |
Changing U.S. Space Policy |
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Jul. 04, 1975 |
Cooperation in Space |
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Mar. 15, 1972 |
Space Shuttle Controversy |
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Oct. 01, 1969 |
Mission to Mars: Benefits Vs. Costs |
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Nov. 13, 1968 |
Goals in Space |
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Jun. 29, 1966 |
Future of Space Exploration |
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May 08, 1963 |
Moon Race Controversy |
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Jun. 27, 1962 |
Peaceful Use of Outer Space |
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Nov. 01, 1961 |
Space Exploration |
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Dec. 09, 1959 |
National Space Policy |
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Feb. 19, 1958 |
Control of Outer Space |
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