The Space Shuttle Discovery and its seven-member STS-120 crew head toward Earth-orbit and a scheduled link-up with the International Space Station. The shuttle consists of a spaceplane for orbit and re-entry, fueled by an expendable liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen tank, with reusable strap-on solid booster rockets.
Friday September 21st, 2012 was an exciting day for many Californian aerospace enthusiasts. Camera-holding fans could be spotted atop buildings and bridges, trying to get a glimpse of the space shuttle Endeavour in mid-flight. The shuttle, perched on top of a Boeing 747, left Edwards Air Force Base early morning en route to its permanent resting place at the California Science Center (1). Endeavor’s last ride heralded the end of the Space Shuttle Age, as well as NASA’s shift toward a new direction in space exploration.
Introduction
Although space programs originated as part of the bitter Cold War technological rivalry between the Soviet Union and United States, the roles of these programs have expanded far beyond political demonstrations of military and technological prowess. Dozens of space agencies have sprung up across the globe since the conclusion of the Space Race, and each has come to pursue its own agenda in aerospace research and cosmic exploration (2). The proliferation of these space programs has shed light on many of the mysteries of the universe, but as more of these programs catch up to one another in terms of spacefaring capabilities, the United States again faces significant competition as it strives to reorient its goals and stay ahead of international competition. The recent retirement of its space shuttle fleet and President Obama’s cancellation of the Bush-approved Constellation Program have forced NASA to direct the responsibility of low orbital launches to the private sector as it refocuses its attention toward developing a space transportation vehicle capable of sending astronauts deeper into space than man has ever gone before (3).
Past
Origins of Space Programs
The conclusion of World War II marked the beginning of a new era in global conflict: the Cold War. For decades, this enormous political and ideological rivalry remained the world’s predominant source of tension and alarm. The United States and the Soviet Union each sought to prove the superiority of its own scientific achievements, athletic potential, military might, and, by extension, social-political system. Amidst this all-out competition, space exploration emerged as the new arena for both superpowers to demonstrate their respective technological supremacy and guard themselves against rising nuclear threat (4).
The Space Age
Though theories involving space travel had been proposed since the beginning of the twentieth century, the Space Age officially began when the Soviet Union successfully launched the first unmanned satellite Sputnik 1 into orbit on October 4, 1957 (5, 6). The Sputnik mission sparked a fierce “Space Race” that defined one of the focal points of the Cold War and served as the primary motivation for the creation of the United States’ own space agency NASA—the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (6).
After the Soviet Union and the United States successfully launched their first manned spacecrafts—Vostok 1 and Freedom 7, respectively—into space in 1961, the competing nations turned their attention toward landing the first man on the moon (6). NASA began a series of manned Apollo missions beginning in October 11, 1968, and the Soviets followed suit with development of the impressive, albeit flawed, N1 rocket (7). The competition culminated with Apollo 11’s successful touchdown on the lunar surface in July 1969 (4).
With the success of the U.S. lunar missions and the easing of U.S.-Soviet tensions during the 1970s, both of the nations’ space programs lost much of the support and motivation to carry out further ambitious projects (8). Nixon rejected NASA’s visions for the development of lunar orbit stations and Mars landings by the 1980s, while the Soviets resigned themselves to their loss following four failed lunar launches between 1969 and 1972 (4,6).
After the Space Race
While the two nations continued to use their respective space programs for military purposes, increasing emphasis was placed on less aggressive goals, such as research and mutual cooperation. The U.S. and Russia launched their first space stations in 1973 and 1971, respectively, with the stated purpose of conducting scientific experiments (6). Crews from the two nations met for the first time in orbit as part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975, paving the way for further international missions and the eventual creation of an International Space Station (6). Shortly afterwards, the U.S. also launched two research spacecrafts—Voyager 1 and Voyager 2—to explore the outer solar system, as well as the first Mars probes that marked the beginning of a series of unmanned rover missions to the red planet (6). NASA’s introduction of the space shuttle in 1981 revolutionized space travel, allowing astronauts to glide back to Earth on reusable space vehicles instead of enduring dramatic splash-downs upon reentry (9). Until its retirement in 2011, the shuttle fleet sent American astronauts on a wide range of research experiments and maintenance projects, including satellite repair, resupply missions to the International Space Station, and the orbital launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 (6,10).
By end of the Space Race, a number of nations around the world also initiated their own space-faring agencies and developed satellite-launching capabilities. While states in Europe collectively established a shared European Space Agency (ESA), countries in Asia were far less cooperative. China, Japan, and India each pursued independent goals and largely built their own programs, ushering in a new rivalry that many perceive as a regional analog to the U.S.-Soviet Space Race (11). For these nations, spaceflight capability served and continues to serve as an extension of their efforts to increase national influence and prestige while checking the powers of neighboring competitors (11).
Present
A Second “Space Age”
As more countries, mostly in Asia and the Americas, join the ranks of existing space powers, foreign rocket launch programs and space exploration missions have become more sophisticated and universal. Most notable of these developments occurred in 2003, when the Chinese succeeded in independently attaining manned spaceflight capability, making it the third nation to do so besides Russia and the U.S. (11). Motivated by the strategic advantages of developing advanced space technology, newcomers such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Brazil and the Philippines have also introduced government-sponsored space agencies and set their own goals in space exploration. This recent growth in space activity within the international community is distinct from the rivalry of the 1960s between Russia and the United States. While the Cold War Space Race pitted the twentieth century’s two greatest superpowers against one another in a relentless struggle to reach the moon, this modern Space Age is a multi-national marathon where each nation is free to set its own pace and strive toward individual goals (11).
End of the Shuttle Age and New Discoveries
While the international community experiences renewed interest and accelerated progress in space exploration, NASA is also in the midst of a dramatic shift in its present missions. The esteemed U.S. shuttle fleet that sent American astronauts on dozens of low Earth orbital missions for the past thirty years finally retired following Atlantis’s final touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center in July 2011 (10). The four orbiters now reside in museums of California, Florida, New York, and Virginia, serving as a testament to America’s enormous achievements in aerospace technology over the last half century, as well as the challenges and tragedies it faced through the decades (1).
Meanwhile, NASA and the ESA’s unmanned exploration programs have enjoyed tremendous success over the past decade. Two of the four Mars rovers launched since 2004 continue to transmit exciting data back to Earth. In particular, the rover Curiosity, which touched down on the Gale Crater in 2012, found clay-rich samples and oxidized carbon compounds in the mudrock of an ancient Martian lakebed, confirming the existence of a wet, life-supporting environment in the planet’s distant past (12). On the other hand, the European space probe Huygens successfully landed on Saturn’s largest natural satellite, Titan, revealing for the first time an exotic lunar surface once unobservable due to the moon’s thick, brown atmosphere (13).
Future
NASA: Future Plans
In response to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, the Bush Administration introduced a new NASA program called the Constellation Project. Constellation oversaw the construction of a fresh lineup of space launch vehicles designed to be safer and have longer range than the agency’s previous forms of space transportation. It focused on the development of two main pieces of space technology: the Ares rockets and the Orion crew capsule; these new spacecrafts would succeed the shuttles as the next generation of vehicles carrying astronauts to Earth orbits and eventually onto manned missions to extraterrestrial bodies (14). With the new designs, Bush expected NASA to resume lunar missions by 2020 (15).
Seven years later, however, the Obama administration canceled the Constellation Project in light of an independent commission report headed by former aerospace executive Norman Augustine. The Augustine panel concluded that the project had fallen significantly behind schedule and, under present conditions, proved to be financially unrealistic (15). As a result, rather than focusing on a second lunar landing, the president encouraged NASA to transfer the responsibility of supply missions and manned low Earth orbit operations to private American spaceflight firms. However, until the private sector manages to develop the capacity to do so, America will rely on Russian Soyuz spacecrafts to help carry its crew and cargo (16).
Though Constellation is no longer an active program, NASA’s plans to realize long-range interplanetary expeditions have remained intact. Under President Obama, the space agency shifted its focus to the development of low-cost, deep-space exploration vehicles, which would allow for a manned asteroid mission followed by an expedition to Mars (14). Funding has been redirected toward designing a modified version of the Orion project which, in conjunction with the agency’s new proposal to create a universal launch vehicle called the Space Launch System (SLS), aims to send astronauts beyond low Earth orbit by 2021 (3).
Obama hopes these shifts in NASA’s priorities will allow astronauts to travel beyond the range of the phased-out space shuttle sooner than would be permitted by Constellation’s prior schedule (15).
International Potential
American interest in once again attaining long-distance spaceflight ability faces significant international competition. China, India, Russia, and private spaceflight firms outside the United States have all set similar deadlines for the developing deep-space exploration technology and time frames for launching their respective extraterrestrial expeditions (16).
Aside from garnering national prestige and laying down the foundation for more advanced space missions, these nations and corporations are also captivated by the promise of extractable rare materials and the potential for economic profit. Researchers theorize that available precious minerals and Helium-3 isotopes on the lunar surface, for example, could lead to highly profitable gains and energy production (16).
Conclusion
Despite their origins as an extension of the Cold War, space programs have grown to signify much more. Already, space-faring agencies around the world operate hundreds of satellites, spacecrafts, and scientific instruments that have vastly improved human communications, demonstrated mankind’s innovations in technology, and unveiled numerous mysteries of the cosmos. Their future missions and goals create boundless potential for scientific and societal achievements in the next several decades. As more nations set their sight on space as the final frontier, the capacity for international collaboration in scientific development remains high and, the future can, quite literally, be considered an exercise in looking toward infinity and beyond.
Contact Shawn (Yifei) Xie at
yifei.xie.ug@dartmouth.edu
References
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