Hi there, JustSpace friends and followers! It’s time again for our latest newsletter, and this one’s chock full of links, information, opinions, and news about space and social justice. Read on!

Private Spaceflight and Gatekeeping Space: An Ongoing Debate

The big news for us this month is the upcoming launch of Inspiration4, the first all-civilian orbital spaceflight. JustSpace friend and Board member Sian Proctor will be aboard for the three-day orbital trip in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, launching tomorrow(!) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The flight was chartered by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who chose his three crewmates through different selection processes: Sian Proctor won an entrepreneurial competition, Chris Sembroski’s ticket was the result of a raffle raising funds for St. Jude Children’s research hospital, and Hayley Arceneaux is a physician at and former patient of St. Jude.

We’re all terribly excited for Sian, who has previously made it almost all the way to the end of NASA’s astronaut selection process. But the Inspiration4 flight, along with other recent billionaire-funded rocket launches, have stimulated a lot of discussion and debate among advocates of an ethical and just approach to space, even within our own organization.

Back in July, Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin each flew on their own spaceflight company’s rockets, in two much-hyped events that garnered both excited media coverage and skeptical opinion pieces. Meghan Bartels wondered how the increase in paying passengers will change the definition of “astronaut”. Alina Ultrata worried about the violent history of governments outsourcing colonization efforts to private corporations. And Miriam Kramer suggested that shifting crew selection away from government space agencies into the hands of billionaires and private companies could simply mean “one gatekeeper is being traded for another”.

Until recently, space agencies like NASA have been the ones to decide who gets to travel to space, with strict astronaut selection criteria based on education, experience, and physical condition. Inspiration4 crew member Hayley Arceneaux, for example, would not have made it past NASA’s previous rounds of astronaut candidate selection, due to a prosthesis in her leg due to childhood bone cancer. Isaacman and SpaceX, however, do not consider this disability to be a barrier to Arceneaux’s space travel.

The concept of “gatekeepers to space” gets at some of the fundamental questions at the heart of the discussion around private human spaceflight: Who deserves to go to space? And, crucially, who gets to answer that question? At least for space agencies, the public has some measure of influence over astronaut selection: American citizens, for example, vote for politicians who appoint NASA administrators who appoint the astronaut selection committee. In contrast, American citizens have zero say in how billionaires choose their spaceflight crewmates.

We certainly think that Sian Proctor deserves to go to space: She’s worked hard to pursue her lifelong dream of space travel, and she’s a wonderful science communicator and advocate. We also cheered for Wally Funk, a member of the first group of female astronaut trainees, the “Mercury 13”, who was never given the opportunity to visit space until Jeff Bezos took her along on his recent Blue Origin flight. NASA decision-makers chose not to allow Proctor and Funk into space on their spacecraft; Isaacman and Bezos decided differently. 

Private spaceflight companies and billionaires choosing who gets to fly on their spacecraft does, technically, increase the number of people going to space. And many of these people would never have been able to go to space otherwise, given the rigorous requirements of space agencies. But how much does this actually improve access to space? Are we merely moving towards a world where prospective space travelers will have to impress a space-loving billionaire if they ever hope to reach the stars? 

We don’t have the answers to all these questions, but we’ll continue the conversation as the private spaceflight industry continues to grow. In the meantime, we wish Sian Proctor and her crewmates a safe flight and gentle landing. Good luck, Sian!

To Listen

Billionaires In Space

“What does billionaires going to space mean for the rest of us?” It’s the million (billion?) dollar question these days, in light of Branson and Bezo’s recent trips, and the upcoming SpaceX Inspiration 4 mission. Listen to our co-founder Lucianne Walkowicz’s thoughts as they talk with Al Jazeera for this episode of The Take.

Making Science Accessible

One of the major ways that science and scientific discoveries become accessible is through the practice of science communication. Science communication is a multifaceted discipline that involves everything from lighthearted recreational learning, to serious topics and policy matters (with none more serious in the past year than communication about the pandemic).

On Science Friday, science communication researcher Reyhaneh Maktoufi discusses the history of people’s efforts to communicate about science to non-specialist audiences. Over time, science communication has grown away from the “sage on a stage” model, where experts expound on their expertise from a pedestal, to more engaging, entertaining, and participatory modes of communication. Learn about the complex, multifaceted art of talking about science (and influencing opinions and policy through science communication) here.

To Read

The Harriet Tubman Space Telescope

Nature recently covered the movement to rename NASA’s next flagship mission, currently called the James Webb Space Telescope. James Webb, who served as the NASA administrator during the Apollo era, had previously been Undersecretary of State during the so-called Lavender Scare, a systematic purge of gay people from the State Department. During Webb’s tenure as NASA administrator, a NASA employee was subjected to an extrajudicial interrogation in the middle of the night under suspicion of being gay. That employee (but not the NASA Security Chief, who interrogated him) was subsequently fired, and eventually sued NASA for wrongful termination of his employment. One thing that has proved to be a sticking point in discussions over whether honors (like having a telescope named after you) should be bestowed on people with poor records on human rights (like Webb) has been the issue of complicity-- in this article, for example, it’s mentioned that it’s not known whether Webb directly persecuted any queer people himself. But if he was the Undersecretary of State at the time, it was his job to see that persecution carried out. Similarly, if one is to laud Webb’s leadership at NASA during Apollo, even though he personally did not directly work on the Apollo program himself, does that mean he is not also to be credited with allowing gay people in his employ to be unlawfully interrogated? One thing is sure: the name of this mission will become the brand NASA adopts for the next decade or more, just as Hubble’s name was. Why choose a habitual homophobe, when you could choose so many others? You might recall from this Scientific American piece, which we have shared previously, that the Harriet Tubman Space Telescope has a nice ring to it. 

Lunar Mining

The private lunar mining was symbolically launched last month when NASA paid the private space company Lunar Outpost 10% of their 1 USD bid to collect and return lunar dust to NASA for study. Ten cents is not exactly a giant step for the space mining industry, especially since Lunar Outpost hasn’t even reached the Moon yet, but as Lunar Cyrus CEO Justin Cyrus argued, this step “sets a legal and procedural framework” for companies like his to extract resources from space “and make them basically useful for humanity”. Still lacking, we would argue, is a robust legal framework for protecting the space environment from human extractive industries. Thanks to JustSpace member Parvathy Prem for bringing this story to our attention.

JustSpace Board member Divya Persaud sent us this story, about space startup company Geometric Energy Corporation planning to launch an advertisement satellite on a SpaceX rocket. The satellite’s “space billboard” won’t be visible from the ground, but will sell advertising space on its small screen, while an on-board camera records images of the ads with the Earth in the background. But as the author of this piece notes, if this satellite is eventually launched, “it’ll mark a rather foreboding milestone. After all, not even the stars and galaxies we all gaze at will be safe from the dark maw of capitalism.”

Take Action

Back in July, we opened JustSpace memberships to newsletter subscribers. Our memberships are sliding scale and non-transactional (meaning pay-what-you-can), and everyone gets the same things: If you become a member, you’ll have access to our virtual community spaces, and in the future, we’ll be able to offer in-person gatherings, our upcoming 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.

Becoming a member is simple! Check out the details here: bit.ly/JustSpaceApply, and if you still have questions, see our FAQ: bit.ly/JustSpaceMemberFAQ (or just email us, [email protected]).

Thank you so much to all of you who have applied so far! We’re excited to have you in our growing community. We’re now ready to expand our memberships beyond newsletter subscribers, so if you’ve got friends or colleagues that you think would be interested in participating, please share the membership application info and links with them! And of course, if you haven’t had the chance to apply yet, you’re always welcome to join us.

See you all next newsletter, and in the meanwhile:

Best wishes to Dr. Sian Proctor and the crew of Inspiration4!