By Jacob Stowers | LTVN Reporter
Since humanity has been able to fly, companies have been exploring ways to capitalize on this capability. Howard Hughes had his Spruce Goose, Jeff Bezos has Blue Origin and Elon Musk has SpaceX. The United States is embarking on a unique era of space travel. We are no longer competing with the former Soviet Union to put a man on the moon; the entire paradigm has shifted to finding the most affordable and accessible ways to get people into space.
While NASA served its purpose for a long time, it was consistently bogged down by budget constraints and congressional subcommittees; however, the private sector has been able to address those issues.
For example, Elon Musk’s SpaceX can afford to keep launching rockets and watching them explode mid-flight, and Jeff Bezos can afford to send Katy Perry to space. However, both of them utilize their personal finances or corporate accounts to make those pursuits happen. They do not need to respond to congressional deadlines or explain why there have been several rapid unscheduled disassemblies during the course of flights.
Moreover, I believe the American people can appreciate the innovation process more knowing that, for the most part, their money is not being lost over the Atlantic Ocean.
These private industries have also opened space travel to the masses (for a small fee, of course). For example, if I wanted to go to space via SpaceX, it would cost roughly $325,000, according to SpaceX. Which, although still incredibly expensive, is more accessible than space travel used to be. While we are still in an early and costly stage of space travel, the door will only be opened wider as technology becomes more standardized and the cost of research and development decreases. If airlines are any indication, we may potentially have the ability to book space travel as a vacation destination or utilize suborbital spacecraft as a means of shortening long-distance travel.
Privatized space travel is quickly becoming a feasible and accessible future for America. Between the lack of taxpayer funding and congressional regulation, innovation has flourished significantly among private corporations. Space is no longer an out-of-reach frontier that can only be accessed by looking up at night; it is quickly becoming a very feasible place to be, and it is fantastic that America is at the forefront.
