Does Spacetravel unite Nations?
When Falcon 9 launched yesterday and carried the Crew Dragon with Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board to Space, over 10 Million people were watching live through webstreams. That is an impressive number in itself. But compared to the moon landing in 1969 with estimated 600 Million viewers you could say that nobody really cared in comparison. Even more so if you factor in the availability of information of streaming vs. TV.
However, this success was politically important to the United States in times of turmoil. It didn’t quite achieve the same effect as the usual and over-attempted creation of the common enemy known from physical and trade wars.
Nevertheless, it gave an important impulse to shift focus on what unites rather than what divides a people.
In Europe, such uniting factor could be useful as well. Brexit and diverging needs for economic policies in the member states have weakened political leadership. Europe is facing unprecedented challenges. Recently, I attended a speach by a German politician who was part of the original setup of the European Union. It was interesting to learn that the introduction of the Euro as single currency was consciously intended as a locomotive factor. Back then, it was clear that economic divergences were too large to unite the member states under one fiscal policy. But much like the moon landing mission of Apollo 11, a 50/50 chance was deemed enough to start the endeavor. From a risk management perspective, both were very daring decisions.
Can Europe institutionalize space travel and use it as an instrument to shift focus on what unites the member states? Previous ESA launches went by mostly unnoticed by the general public. This might mostly be attributed to the fact that marketing and publicity approaches of an European agency differ from privately owned American companies. However, there is potential.
Public interest is usually greater when new technologies are deployed for the first time and not only rockets but the imagination of people can be ignited. When “Imagine” was released by John Lennon in 1971 in the US and 1975 in the UK, it took a while to climb the charts before it became one of the most successful pop songs ever. Over the decades it managed to remain in the top 100 charts, because it gives us opportunity to ask “what if”. Unfortunately, the way the human mind is built leads us to forget about our imagination too quickly if we’re not constantly reminded. We fall back into our daily routines and forget about possibilities.
A novel, European technological achievement like a fully sustainable Space Port could well be a strong impulse of unity to Europe. Combined with the right mix of social media marketing and public education, a common European achievement could be a welcome instrument to shift focus on what unites. This could then be used to refuel the locomotive idea that also powered the creation of the single currency and to create a more united Europe with one more common goal — a sustainable space business.
Space One will use only sustainable energy to provide frequent launches for CubeSats and other payloads into low earth orbits and is being developed by a European consortium. Its comparably low launch cost will create economic feasibility for the implementation of applications which are currently prohibited be distant launch schedules and prohibitive cost.
Most importantly, it will be European and Sustainable.
Bjoern Holste — Space One
