Hello again, space fans (and skeptics)! It’s time for another edition of the JustSpace Alliance newsletter, featuring explosions, crashes, commentary, and critiques.

Starship Launch Test

SpaceX attempted a launch test of their Starship Super Heavy, the largest rocket ever built, on April 20. The uncrewed rocket cleared the launchpad but lost control before it achieved separation, eventually exploding mid-flight in the sky over SpaceX’s Starbase launch facility near Boca Chica, Texas. The debris field from both the rocket and the concrete launch pad, which was blown apart by the force of the launch, was scattered across the region, including neighborhoods in nearby Port Isabel and South Padre Island as well as federally protected wildlife areas.

While SpaceX and its supporters celebrated the test as a success— noting that data gained from failed launches can be just as valuable for rocket development as successful flights— conservation groups quickly filed a lawsuit against the FAA, the federal agency responsible for providing launch licenses to companies like SpaceX. The suit claims that the FAA violated the law by granting SpaceX a license for the Starship test without requiring a full environmental impact study.

SpaceX’s founder claims that the launch site could be repaired and ready for the next launch within six to eight weeks, but even if such a rapid repair is possible, this lawsuit may delay FAA approval for months or even years. This is not welcome news for NASA’s Artemis program, which has contracted with SpaceX to develop a lunar lander variant of Starship to take astronauts to the Moon’s surface and back as part of the planned Artemis III mission.

News

New NASA Naming Policy

NASA quietly released a new Policy for Naming NASA Projects and Facilities a few months ago. It updates the previous policy by requiring that the ad hoc name selection team include a historian from the Office of Communication to provide “a verifiable review of any individual whose name is being considered”. It also states that the historical analysis “will include a human capital review to ensure diversity, unity, inclusion, and inspiration are considered.”

The updated policy also now placed limits on naming projects after individuals, preferring instead the use of themes like “unity, inspiration, or the accomplishments of a person”. Naming a project after an individual is now only to be considered in “extraordinary circumstances” and should be “based on their contributions to America, NASA, and humanity, and therefore be so extraordinary that any other form of recognition by the Agency would be considered inadequate.”

If you’re wondering what may have prompted NASA to update this policy, we recommend watching our recent documentary, Behind the Name, for some context.

NASA Moon to Mars Architecture

NASA released the Moon to Mars Architecture Definition Document last month, the result of their first Architecture Concept Review. The document dives into the technical details of NASA’s plan for human exploration of the Moon and Mars in the coming years. You can find links to the full 158-page document, plus some much shorter executive summaries, here.

iSpace Lunar Lander Crash

A second lunar lander built by a private company has tried and failed to land on the Moon (in one piece, anyway). The Hakuto-R lander, built by Japanese company iSpace, lost contact as it was about to touch down on April 26. Inverse published an intriguing piece on May 1: 

“iSpace Crash Highlights Why Apollo Sites Need Protection, Say Archaeologists”, including interviews with space archeologists Justin Walsh and JustSpace Board member Alice Gorman.

To Listen

JustSpace co-founder Erika Nesvold has been making the rounds of the space podcast world recently to discuss her new book, Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space. One of her favorite conversations in the past two months was her interview on NPR’s 1A, “The ethics of space exploration”, with host and fellow sci-fi fan Jenn White.

Democracy Now! spoke with environmental and community advocate Behah Hinojosa about the Starship explosion and SpaceX’s effects on the region in “‘Colonizing Our Community’: Elon Musk’s SpaceX Rocket Explodes in Texas as Feds OK New LNG Projects”.

For a policy perspective on the Starship test, Casey Dreier of the Planetary Society’s Planetary Radio podcast interviewed environmental policy expert Eric Roesch for “Space Policy Edition: SpaceX's Starship vs. the environment”.

To Read

Nicola Davis reported on a panel at the AAAS Meeting in March that focused on the ethics of space exploration (including panelist and JustSpace Board member Hilding Neilson): “End ‘colonial’ approach to space exploration, scientists urge”.

Julia Muraszkiewicz, an international legal expert in human trafficking, wrote about “Exploitation beyond our planet: the risks of forced labor in space mining” for The Space Review.

Samuel Jardine of the Open Lunar Foundation argued that “Lunar competition risks global stability” for Comment Central.

Take Action

We invite you to apply to join the JustSpace Alliance at bit.ly/JustSpaceApply! Members have access to our virtual community spaces, and in the future, we’ll be able to offer in-person gatherings, more podcast and video content, writing, and more. Supporting JustSpace will help us reach our mission goals by allowing us to compensate people for their time and labor for our future projects, as well as help us cover basic costs like maintaining our website, etc. You can find more information at bit.ly/JustSpaceMemberFAQ.