SpaceX – the privately-owned space company of billionaire Elon Musk – operates in a new hit of the commercial world, the space economy. Musk’s unprecedented ambition to bring ordinary human life into space attracts much public attention, and in recent years people have begun to realise the great potential of the space economy, that provides goods and services for both Earth and the future manned space environments. SpaceX’s products range from Starlink – the potent satellite system that links most parts of the world – to rockets such as Falcon 9 that delivers logistic services up to Earth orbit and beyond. The spectacular launching scenes are encouraging for whoever believes in the bright future that deeply connects with space, yet they are also alarming as people become aware of the related environmental impacts.
Exciting news:
Space exploration
As the leading space logistics service provider, SpaceX makes space exploration and utilisation, especially Earth orbit services, more convenient and available. SpaceX offers rideshares with a relatively low price for corporate clients to deliver goods up to Earth’s orbit, which allows the possibility of transformative infrastructure construction and scientific research up there, e.g. monitoring the Earth’s environmental data from space, medicine development in space, scientific research under space conditions etc.
Local economy
SpaceX also influences local economy positively. Its high profile status attracted attention and spending in its launch site Boca Chica – a Texas town that was rather unknown, and the strengthened branding of the town is likely to create economic benefits. Starlink – SpaceX’s satellite system – strives to cover regions that were previously signal dead zone in the US. Such infrastructure support is crucial for local economic development.
Products
The recently prominent test launch of Starship highlights SpaceX’s ambition to achieve fully reusable space vehicles, which is considered as a significant step to realise sustainability in space. This has been an industry with highly invested, sophisticatedly designed spacecrafts and rockets that are of short lifespans. It sets the new standard in the commercial space industry to encourage an early-integrated consideration of sustainability in product and service development.
Concerns:
Environment (Earth and beyond)
The major concern that SpaceX’s operations pose on society is environmental pollution, both on Earth and in space, despite the approval from the Federal Aviation Administration that claimed no significant prior concerns regarding its recent launches. The recent test launch of Starship – SpaceX’s flagship product for NASA’s future Moon and Mars exploration – put debris and fire in its launch site, a US national wildlife protection area. Besides, fuel for SpaceX vehicles transforms into carbon that emits into the air during launches, and SpaceX’s increasing frequency of launches may materialise into a substantial climate concern. Space pollution is a further issue. Debris in space is likely to threaten future space missions and extraterrestrial environments as they pile up, and currently debris removal remains a new frontier in the space industry. SpaceX, however, does show commitment to remedy space debris pollution, e.g. Starlink’s website explicitly mentions its work to mitigate on-orbit debris, and Musk has voiced the potential efficacy of developing Starship to remove orbiting debris around the Earth. But to what extent that would make up the pollution it and its many clients have produced, is unclear.
In conclusion, SpaceX offers an ambitious vision to human society by reducing the many barriers that stop the public from having deep connections with space. While it accelerates the development of advanced technologies by empowering the space supply chain with its product portfolio, its activities remain a budding concern, especially for environmentalists. It has proven efforts to mitigate such adverse impacts by pioneering reusable space shuttles and debris removal, and has shown clear plans to self-assess its impacts and of measurements it will take accordingly in the future. As a leading space company, SpaceX precisely represents the dilemma of fostering the space industry – it is unsure whether the bright future of extensive human space exploration comes first, or the environmental crisis that threatens the very existence of life on Earth.
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