How US can avoid repeating Cold War space race mistakes with China

A space race is brewing again 50 years after humans last set foot on the moon amid Cold War conflict
To get it right this time, the US must avoid great power rivalry, make it greener – with reusable rockets for a start – and keep it a purely scientific endeavour

Paul Freelend

Published: 3:30am, 8 Sep 2022

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Is 50 still considered old? The answer might seem obvious to some, but it’s increasingly less clear in an era of broadly improving longevity in which 40, 50 and even 60 have been described as “the new 30”.

This bit of temporal confusion arose because Nasa added to the feeling of everything old being new again by taking the first steps in its return to the moon. The Artemis programme was set to take flight on Saturday with the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the first of a series of missions to establish a long-term human presence on the moon. The launch was delayed twice over a fuel leak before being postponed until later this month.

As of December 14 – the anniversary of the Apollo 17 astronauts leaving the moon in 1972 – you’ll need to be 50 to have been alive the last time humans set foot on the moon or even went beyond low-Earth orbit. It’s hard not to feel what Yogi Berra called “déjà vu all over again” because Nasa retracing the Apollo programme’s steps fits with the rhetoric around the so-called new cold war.

A new space race between China and the United States is both exciting and worrying. It’s exciting – especially to space nerds like me – because space exploration has been an afterthought since the Cold War ended, and that is to our detriment. Our human need to explore, understand and inspire didn’t end with the fall of the Soviet Union. It’s also exciting because it’s damn cool. How else would you describe launching a 32-storey, 26 million kg building into lunar orbit with explosions?

It’s worrying because, while I’m nine years short of 50, I’m old enough to see some bad old habits returning. Political patronage has steered the Artemis programme off its optimal course. US policymaking is increasingly framed in competition with China, with even small countries tipping into Beijing’s orbit treated as a threat to freedom and democracy everywhere. If we must have a Space Race 2.0, let’s do it right instead of as an elaborate geopolitical flex.

02:08

Nasa postpones launch of Artemis 1 moon mission over rocket engine snag

Ideally, we’d start this chapter united as a species with China as part of the team. I grew up in a Star Trek household, and I still hold a Roddenberrian belief in humanity’s ability to transcend political boundaries as we reach for the stars. This is despite all evidence, even in just the past 15 years, that even moderate social progress will meet swift, organised and often violent backlash.

Unfortunately, the political climate is far from ideal. China has joined Islamic extremism, Japan, the Soviet Union and communism in general in the long line of nebulous foreign menaces the two major US political parties compete over to see who can appear the “toughest”. US-China decoupling, even on matters where their cooperation could save the world, suggests unified space exploration is off the table for now.

So if a new space race is inevitable, how can we at least avoid making the same mistakes? For starters, Nasa can make the SLS’ debut its swan song. There is no reason for Nasa to be a low-Earth-orbit trucking operation when SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Blue Origin’s New Shepard have shown that reusable rockets can reliably get the job done and reduce the amount of waste that burns up in the atmosphere or gets dumped in the ocean.

But rather than use private-sector solutions, Nasa is sticking with the SLS – derisively called the “Senate Launch System” for its bloated budget and perceived cosiness between Congress, Nasa bureaucracy and the aerospace industry. As astronomer Pamela Gay noted, it’s odd to see Nasa dumping a “big piece of trash” in the ocean when avoiding unnecessary damage to the environment is the way of the world.

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China grows rice, other plants in space as part of Tiangong station experiment

We can also keep this space race a scientific endeavour. Predictably, China’s efforts towards crewed lunar landings and a moon base have drawn accusations of militarising space and trying to take control of the moon. Evidence China is seeking anything beyond the technological progress and prestige that comes with success in space appears scant, but that has not stopped space from becoming the latest front for great power rivalry.

The rhetoric of rivalry and power politics might ensure Congressional support, but it’s damaging in the long run and turns non-threatening matters into vital issues of national security. If we’re going back to the moon, let’s do it for the right reasons.

Do it because it advances knowledge, opens doors for scientific progress and provides a base for expanding humanity’s reach beyond low-Earth orbit. Do it because the sight of someone other than a white man setting foot on another celestial body can inspire people around the world.

There is value in US-China competition, but make it competition rooted in progressive statecraft that brings those who are struggling what they need – roads, ports, clean water, reliable power grids with renewable energy, debt relief and so on. That will do far more to improve the US image and promote American values than the kind of competition that lavishes weapons on dictators and autocrats while helping defence contractors in northern Virginia buy a third holiday home.

If all goes to schedule, Artemis 3 will deliver astronauts to the moon in 2025. I’ll be 44 then. The Trekker in me holds out hope the rivalry rhetoric will calm down and healthy competition can flourish. The international relations student in me is less hopeful but somewhat consoled by the prospect of more rocket launches and a renewed focus on science. You take your small victories where you can these days.

Paul Freelend is a production editor at the Post