From the Crew Dragon Demo-2 launch to Elon Musk’s “coronavirus panic is dumb” tweet, we all saw how the $400 billion dollar space industry known as SpaceX, came to a production and developmental halt. Industries like the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) and Blue Origin started operating on the “work from home” policies as well as they limited their business travels and rescheduled their plans for the development of the production.
Bettina Inclán, NASA’s spokesperson, told CNBC that they are actively monitoring the issue and trying their best to keep the production sector in a working order. Nasa’s new Mars rover mission was launched on 30 July 2020. Their James Webb Telescope is also ready to launch next year. The Telescope has been mechanised to look deeper into space and discover the stars and galaxies which were formed at the earliest stages of the formation of the universe.The James Webb Telescope will help humans reach a new milestone and they can discover more about the origins of the universe.
Crew dragon Demo-2 astronauts: Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley
Crew Dragon Demo 2 is the first crewed orbital spaceflight which was set to launch on 30 May 2020, nine years after the final Space Shuttle mission which was launched in 2011. Preparations for a space mission are always intense and hence, the novel coronavirus added more complexities to the Crew Dragon Demo-2 project. Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley minimized their interactions and cancelled a few meetings. A report states that NASA was worried if the astronauts would catch the virus and infect the rest of the crew at the International Space Station (ISS) leading NASA re-evaluating their safety measures and trying their best not to let the virus reach orbit. They also followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) protocols to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
“This includes cleaning of surfaces, social distancing, emphasizing hand hygiene, encouraging NASA team members who are sick to stay home and limiting contact with crew members,” Brandi Dean from NASA’s Public Affairs Office told Space.com.
Where NASA was taking extra precautions, Elon Musk called the coronavirus panic “dumb” and his few tweets like “free america” shocked many of his praisers. He asked his employees to “stay at home and take care of themselves if they are feeling ill”. Reports also state that Elon is downplaying the severity of the outbreak. According to Business Insider, with Covid-19 cases increasing in the US, medical experts have recommended avoiding large gatherings and to keep a distance of 6 feet/2 inches from each other. Despite warnings given to SpaceX about the Covid-19 safety measures, it still did not respond and it’s employees continue to work in the Company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
Musk also “vowed” to provide ventilators to hospitals in the USA, using his automobile company, Tesla, in production. Musk has been criticized by Bernie Sanders, who called him a “hypocrite”, after Musk non validated the government’s stimulus package (A stimulus package is a coordinated effort to increase government spending). And Bill Gates called his tweets “outrageous”.
Jeff Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin is reported to have said that they are taking necessary measures and are prepared if they have to make more extensive changes to it’s business if necessary.
“We are accommodating to our workforce, financially supporting self-quarantine actions, and enabling those who can work from home to be able to do so. We are also implementing measures to social distance our workforce and keep our facilities clean and safe,” Blue Origin vice president of communications Linda Mills said in a statement.
But what Linda Mills tells the media is not entirely true, in fact an employee told reporters that Bezos is pressuring Blue Origin employees to launch a space tourism rocket. While the coronavirus continues to demolish the US, the employees at Bezos’ aeronautics firm are being pressured into testing its launch for the New Shepard rocket, which will help wealthy tourists explore space. In order to run the launch tests, Blue Origin officials are deciding to transport employees from the company’s main headquarters to a small town near Seattle which is said to be a covid-19 hotspot. They previously tested their rockets in the same place and continue to do so.
“It feels like the company is prioritizing its business goals and schedule above the safety of its employees and the community,” one employee told The Verge.
The U.S is delaying many of its launches, whereas the Russian Space Agency has been testing its satellite-killing missiles. The U.S space commander criticized Russia for testing two of its satellites near the American ones.. Also, a Russian rocket carrying a telescope disintegrated, leaving behind debris in the lower orbit where many of the satellites are orbiting the Earth. The U.S space commanders saw this as a threat to their satellites and an attempt to “destroy” their satellites too.
“These satellites, which behaved similar to previous Russian satellites that exhibited characteristics of a space weapon, conducted maneuvers near a U.S. government satellite that would be interpreted as irresponsible and potentially threatening in any other domain,” Space Command told in an April 15 statement.
In April, a Chinese rocket failed to reach the orbit. The rocket was carrying an Indonesian next-generation broadband and broadcast communication satellite known as Palapa-N1 satellite. The first and second stages of the launch were reported to have taken off well but something went wrong in the third stage. The rocket destroyed the satellite, raining debris on Earth. This is the second failure of Chinese Space Agency. The rocket was known as: Chinese Long March 3B rocket.
An image of the launch of Chinese Long March 3B rocket.
In conclusion, we need to understand that space exploration will eventually lead to humans colonizing planets and expanding our civilisation. Earth is slowly dying from climate change, and lack of action will lead to the extinction of living beings. Space exploration thus supports innovation and economic prosperity by stimulating advances in science and technology, as well as motivating the global scientific and technological workforce. Enlarging the sphere of human economic activity, NASA said in an article. We do not know the future of our space agencies and what the novel coronavirus holds for us. For now, all we can do is hope and try our best to keep ourselves safe.
