Giant Leaps for Progress
The author is professor of politics and director of the International Graduate Program in Politics at East China Normal University in Shanghai
On May 30, U.S. space agency NASA in partnership with Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s other company, SpaceX, sent two astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), the multinational space laboratory in Earth’s orbit.
Much has been made of the public-private partnership represented by SpaceX playing such a prominent role. In fact, U.S. companies have always manufactured vehicles for NASA. For example, the firms North American Rockwell and U.S. Northrop Grumman constructed the launch vehicles for the mission in 1970, where, the first shuttle to reach space in 1981 but which disintegrated before returning to Earth in 2003, tragically killing its seven-member crew and ending U.S. launches of manned vehicles until this day. Private firms were also there throughout for the incredible successes, including lunar landings and a host of other major accomplishments in outer space.
