Analysis by Elissa Hassan, Contributor and Sarah El-Abd, Editor-in-Chief

May 31st, 2020

"Let's light this candle," said Hurley, one of the two Americans aboard the Falcon 9 of the SpaceX Demo-2 mission, just before ignition. The phrase was borrowed historically from Alan Shepard during America's first human spaceflight back in 1961. 

Amidst the global pandemic, killing over 100,00 Americans, and amidst the most widespread racial protests as a part of the Black Lives Matter movement across the US, the timing of this historic launch remains heavily contested. 

The mission was originally scheduled three days earlier, on Wednesday the 27th. However, in light of thunderstorms, lightning and significantly low clouds, the launch was rescheduled with only 17 minutes left on the official countdown clock.

The mission is the first of its kind after the end of the official Space Shuttle Program in the aftermath responses to the 2011 national tragedy. 

On Tuesday June 28th of 2011 it was concluded that the space shuttle Atlantis' under Commander Chris Ferguson and three crewmates were scheduled to proceed with a 12-day mission to the International Space Station with a launch at 11:26 a.m. EDT on July 8, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

The 12-day mission, which is now referred to as the Columbia disaster, originally included the Atlantis' STS-135 mission with the main goal of providing the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module filled with supplies and alternative parts in order to further maintain the space station operations. 

The mission also flew the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM), an experiment with the intentions of illustrating and testing the apparatuses, technologies, and methods required to robotically refuel satellites in space - also satellites not planned to be adjusted. 

However, after authorities across southern US states began reporting larger pieces of debris on land, such as a 1.2-meter piece of Debris in a local lake in Nacogdoches, the true extent to which the Atlantis’ mission had failed became apparent. “My fellow Americans, this day has brought terrible news, and great sadness to our country. At 9 o'clock this morning, Mission Control in Houston lost contact with our Space Shuttle Columbia. A short time later, debris was seen falling from the skies above Texas. The Columbia is lost; there are no survivors” announced President George W. Bush to his country.  

In the aftermath circa 40,000 recovered pieces of debris was never identified and identified debris from the spacecraft was found in over 2,000 separate fields across the South of the USA. However, with no survivors it was not only space debris that fell to the ground Earth, searchers also identified human body parts of the seven crew of Columbia, including arms, feet, a torso, and a heart.

Consequently, the US ended its official Space Shuttle Program shortly thereafter. 

The 2020 mission which lifted off at 3:22 p.m. ET from the same Florida launchpad that served the Atlantis’ from 2011, was a new sight for many. Not only is it the first launch from US soil since the Columbia disaster, but more critically it was built and operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX – not by NASA, making it the first private-public initiative to launch into space. The Falcon 9 rocket was cheered on as it lifted off by President Trump, Vice President Pence, as well as both the First and Second lady.

Trumps Administration has most certainly made space a priority. The establishment and complete foundation of a space force as an integral branch of the US military, entirely independent of NASA and thus the first of its kind, as well as the establishment of Trump’s American First National Space Strategy go to prove it. 

 However, since NASA retired its space shuttles in 2011, the space agency can now finally launch astronauts from its home shores rather than paying for seats aboard Russian spacecraft, which have in the recent past molded to over $85m USD apiece.

In the new Commercial Crew model, SpaceX retains ownership and operational control of its spacecraft, meaning anyone that is of a certain amount of money, at least in theory, could buy a ticket to orbit. Could a one-way ticket to the moon be possible in the nearer future?

Well, not quite. However, NASA stated on June 7, 2019 it is allowing private citizens to fly, if not to the moon, at least to the International Space Station, the only place where people currently live off the planet. As expected it will be very costly at an estimated amount of $35,000 a night, up to two private citizens could visit the space station each year.

Axiom Space and Space Adventures, two private US companies, announced earlier in 2020 their plans to purchase launches with SpaceX to begin offering space tourists the opportunity go further than just their typical ‘oversees spring breaks’.  

More than the prospective space tourists, both NASA and SpaceX have also commenced on a film project with Hollywood actor Tom Cruise. The 57-year-old actor, along with director Doug Liman, have approached NASA and SpaceX to collaborate on a venture into the International Space Station for filming. A first draft of a prospective screenplay for the Cruise film exists according to reports.

According to Jim Bridenstine, the NASA Administrator, “we need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make @NASA’s ambitious plans a reality” he noted in a tweet on May 5th of 2020.  

With the future of US Space exploration as we know it changing by the arrival of Falcon 9 promptly little over 2 hours ago as of publication, the world order continues to change even further in the face of the ongoing pandemic. “Today’s launch makes clear the commercial space industry is the future” noted Trump in official remarks on the launch. 

If SpaceX Demo-2 continues to reach all the checkmarks set out by its launchers, the world will most certainly be seeing a decade of space exploration and a continuous rise of global security dilemmas like never seen before. Nuclear disarmament will become of the least of our worries.  “We have created the envy of the world and will soon be landing on Mars and will soon have the greatest weapons ever imagined in history” added the President further emphasizing this prospective space armament journey. 

However, what does not seem to have changed significantly are US priorities. With national affairs relatively lower on the priority list and aspirations of global hegemony at the top – the Trump Administration continues to showcase that the lives of Americans in America may not be equal to foreign policy and superiority. 

This potential to go further into space and learn more of our world beyond hits closer to home than we may think. While NASA were on a mission back in the 1960’s to reach the moon, Lebanon had a similar vision as well. The Lebanese Rocket Society was noted as one of the greatest achievements in Lebanese history established by Manoug Manougian, a professor of the local Hagazian University teaching mathematics.

Dr. Manougian lead a team that consisted of young scientists, students, and army experts creating an infant space program and launched the first rocket ever created in the Middle East. It’s purpose was purely for a science project as they aimed to be on the journey of discovering beyond the borders of earth just like NASA despite the fact that they had barely any resources and money, their curiosity and commitment was much bigger.

The curiosity of the Lebanese Rocket Society differs greatly from the exploratory desires of the US and other major superpowers of our contemporary world. However, only time will show to what extent these differences will affect not only the global order but our everyday life in the very near future.