Growing up as a kid, I loved looking into the night sky and imagining what space might be like and what I would do as an astronaut. As I grew older, of course, I realized that spaceflight was a dream I’d never actually experience, or will I? The space race of yesteryear might have ended with the first person to reach the moon, but there is a new race underway.
According to a recent article1 by Josh Dinner, a contributing writer for Space.com, Boeing launched Starliner into space on May 19 to demonstrate how the uncrewed vehicle could navigate and dock to the International Space Station (ISS) and return home safely. While the vetting process is far from done, another flight with a crew on board could happen before the end of the year.
Boeing isn’t the only private company vying to transport astronauts to the ISS. Elon Musk’s SpaceX also holds a contract with Nasa’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and has already had four successful crewed missions. While these flights certainly pique the interest of space enthusiasts, I think that it’s important to recognize how it plays into the rest of our daily lives.
The potential for advancing healthcare and agriculture through near zero gravity research is real, the potential for inhabiting the moon is real and the technology we develop in pursuit of these causes is very real.
Drawing on experience from the Commercial Crew Program, SpaceX has also developed the Starship. A combination of spacecraft & lunar lander with a rocket launching system. Purportedly, the Starship can carry as many as 100 people to the surfaces of the moon or mars.
You can chalk the claim up to science fiction but there is already a private flight scheduled for 2023 to circumvent the moon with private citizens though, lunar landings are not expected until 2025.
Suddenly, the childhood dream of space travel is becoming a real possibility and as a technologist, I look forward to the derived technological innovation that will benefit us all whether we have the get to travel to space or not.
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Dinner, J. (2022, May 30). What’s next for Boeing’s Starliner Capsule after Historic Space Station Mission? Space.com. Retrieved May 31, 2022, from https://www.space.com/boeing-starliner-oft-2-mission-next-steps
1 Dinner, J. (2022, May 30). What’s next for Boeing’s Starliner Capsule after Historic Space Station Mission? Space.com. Retrieved May 31, 2022, from https://www.space.com/boeing-starliner-oft-2-mission-next-
Charles Stiles
Charles is a Business Analyst with more than 30 years of professional experience. He has an extensive background in developing and implementing solutions for the Federal Government, public and private enterprise alike. His keen understanding of technology generates practical alternative solutions and elicits best-in-class results. He is a conceptual pragmatist that brings visions to fruition.
