The SpaceX Super Heavy booster carrying the Starship spacecraft lifts off on its 12th test flight from the SpaceX launch complex in Starbase, Texas, May 22, 2026. (Steve Nesius/Reuters)
There is more to space supremacy than dollars and cents.
This April, four astronauts sailed around the Moon aboard NASA's Orion capsule — the first crew to make that voyage since 1972. Weeks later, on the Texas coast, SpaceX launched the maiden flight of Starship Version 3, a machine bankrolled not by Congress but by private capital, on which the company has now staked more than $15 billion of its own money. The commercial space revolution and the return to the Moon have arrived at the same moment. But can private enterprise coexist with public imperatives?
The answer is a resounding yes. We need both business and government to get the ...
Continue reading this article with an NRPLUS subscription.
All the access, half the price: join NRPLUS for $5/month
