The successful Artemis II mission is one answer to what we have been told for way too long, that exploration “beyond known boundaries” is unaffordable and “too risky.”
“We are told not only to consume less but to dream less,” writes John Tillman. “Always the same chorus: lower your expectations. Stop reaching.” SpaceX and Artemis II have interrupted this tune.
And Artemis II has a lot to do with SpaceX, Tillman stresses. It’s NASA, it’s a government program, but one heavily reliant on markets.
NASA deserves credit for managing a complex mission. But 2,700 private companies were involved in providing crucial components.
Lockheed Martin. Made the Orion spacecraft that carried the crew.
Boeing. Made “the massive core stage of the Space Launch System rocket.”
Northrop Grumman. Made rocket boosters and an abort system.
Aerojet Rocketdyne. Made engines and thrusters.
“That’s just the prime contractors. Beneath them sat a supply chain of extraordinary depth.”
There’s more. In the five decades that NASA avoided lunar exploration and colonization, private enterprise had been providing reminder after reminder as to just how much could be accomplished by tapping dispersed knowledge and talents — from feeding the masses to connecting everyone via computer networking — making any lingering timidity or depressive preconception ultra-passé.
“SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launches for $67 million, lands its boosters, and flies again within weeks. That’s a nearly twenty-five-fold cost reduction through competition and innovation. When companies bear the risk, they solve problems creatively. When taxpayers bear the risk, you get decades of stagnation.”
That’s how markets and dreams work — when they’re allowed to.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Illustration created with Nano Banana
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