Hello people! What are SpaceX and NASA doing to revolutionize space exploration?
Today, space exploration is no longer an arena that belongs only to the government. The following happened over the past decade: SpaceX’s work with NASA has shown how the ambitious public-private view of the universe is being redefined.
Let’s dive in!
SpaceX’s Collaborations with NASA: The dramatic ways Public-Private Partnerships are reshaping Space Exploration
The Emergence of a New Type of Business Relationship
SpaceX and NASA have been working together since the mid-2000s, when NASA sought industry partners for commercial development of LEO capabilities, especially in support of ISS cargo delivery.
This collaboration model, now known as the Commercial Crew Program, was NASA’s way of ‘privatizing’ human spaceflight with third-party commercial partners. That is when SpaceX emerged as a program leader that aims to create safe and affordable space transportation.
With this partnership, SpaceX sent the Dragon capsule in 2012; this was the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the ISS. This success was welcomed due to NASA’s approach of outsourcing these low-orbit routine space missions, which ultimately cost the agency billions and kept its experts free to pursue more profound space research.
Ensuring Everyone Has Equal Opportunities to Access Space
One of the greatest accomplishments of this partnership has been cutting down the cost of going to space. For most of its life, NASA has been associated with expensive missions due to the requirements of expanding rockets and expensive contracts from federal governments.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX brought reusable rocket technology, more specifically with the Falcon 9 rocket, that greatly reduced the costs of space launches.
It has helped NASA direct its limited resources to funding explorations to the Moon and Mars, not on various orbital flights.
The collaboration also witnessed SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft being the first crewed launch by a private company for the ISS in May 2020.
This was a milestone in American space exploration because it was a manned launch from American territory after the stop of space shuttles in 2011.
Designing the Surface Transportation for Mars and Beyond
The long-term goals of SpaceX and NASA are to send humans to the red planet, and that might be the most audacious of them all.
With the Starship rocket that SpaceX is now building to be able to hold more cargo payloads and possibly for reusability when transporting cargo within the Solar System, both organizations are now designing a mission towards a unified goal.
NASA has involved SpaceX in its Artemis Program, which plans to return humans to the Moon permanently; the latter was chosen to provide the lunar lander for the mission in Artemis III.
Some of these achievements in lunar exploration will be facilitating the future Mars missions.
The partnership is meant to fine-tune manned ultra-long-duration space missions, life support systems, and lunar habitat – all of which will be necessary when humans venture to the Red Planet.
Proposal for Enhancing Creativity and Growth of New Fields
What has happened, however, is that SpaceX and NASA’s cooperation has initiated this domino effect and encouraged other private companies to invest in I.C.E…space.
Others, such as Blue Origin, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin, are now directly participating in such partnerships, making it a competitive but integrated space business.
This healthy competition drives new innovative technology development, helps to bring down costs, and advances agendas that would have otherwise taken a longer time.
By the success of these partnerships, the United States has moved itself to the leadership of space exploration, going from a government-focused program to an ecosystem where private institutions are key players.
Conclusion
We can also see that the relations between SpaceX and NASA have now become revolutionary in terms of space exploration. Besides transitioning humanity further into space, this partnership is also making space more accessible and sustainable. Can the future of space exploration rely on such partnerships as these, interlinking creativity and efficiency.
Public-private partnerships are the future of space exploitation?
