A New Era in Space THOM BAUR/REUTERS

Home , Commercial astronaut, Homer Hickam, Robert Zubrin

Volume 18 Issue 4

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■ Post Reprint: “Five Myths About Space” ■ Post Opinion Reprint: “This is exactly the wrong time to retreat from space” ■ Post Opinion Reprint: “The mission to Mars is one stupid leap for mankind” ■ Student Activity: PRO-CON A Difference of Opinion ■ e-Replica: Explore e-Replica | Search and Monitor ■ Post Reprint: “Virgin Galactic craft crosses threshold of space”

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Most agree that NASA should remain a viable U.S. agency. In October 1958 when it was established it “was built on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and other government organizations as the locus of U.S. civil aerospace research and development.” Project Mercury, an effort to learn if humans could survive in space was its first major program. Different Perspectives What now?

Does NASA focus on the moon with a new Gateway or resumption of landings and lunar exploration? Does NASA continue to gather data on Mars and ready spacecraft for both unmanned and manned landings? Should it continue with space exploration like those accomplished by the Hubble telescope and New Horizons?

In what ways will mankind and the blue planet benefit from the space explorations? Read and ponder the points of view. Debate and discuss. Which for you is the most fascinating and acceptable of the different perspectives?

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Myths About Space

● Originally Published on Dec. 11, 2018 (or sometimes not so gracefully) By Lucianne Walkowicz flipping and floating around, hair Space is literally all around us, and aloft, like swimmers in a starry sea. it’s notoriously difficult to wrap our Lucianne Walkowicz is an This often leads people to conclude minds around it. Given the hundreds astronomer at the Adler that there’s no gravity up there. of billions of stars and planets that Planetarium, and the 5th Blumberg “Gravity is an important influence on make up our galaxy alone, who Chair in Astrobiology root growth, but the scientists found can be blamed for a lack of cosmic 5that their space plants didn’t need it to perspective, even if NASA’s InSight flourish,” National Geographic wrote explorer just landed on Mars to send in 2012 of botanical research aboard some back? As an astronomer at the space station. A 2018 headline in the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, I the Independent similarly described spend a lot of time talking with our a condition that affects astronauts visitors about their space questions, during “zero-gravity missions.” as well as debunking some persistent In fact, if there were no gravity misconceptions. These five crop up in space, it wouldn’t be possible for again and again. astronauts (or anything) to orbit the Earth. As Newton explained it, gravity MYTH NO. 1 is the mutual attraction between any There’s no gravity in space. objects that have mass. Here on Earth, Maybe you’ve seen those videos Randy Bresnik we experience gravity as our weight, NASA Astronaut Randy Bresnik shared a of weightless astronauts on the video showing the International Space Station which is to say the attraction between International Space Station, gracefully orbiting above the Sea of Japan on Nov. 29. our own mass and the Earth. When

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hard for astronomers to study, since most of our understanding of the universe relies on measuring light. What we do know is that the huge masses of black holes (anywhere from tens to millions of times the mass of our sun) bend space-time in extreme ways, which is why illustrations often make them look like deep cosmic funnels. If you get close enough to one, you will certainly experience its powerful gravitational force, which is why astronomers see stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. But Washington Post Live the gravitational tug is just like that The Washington Post hosted "Transformers: Space" on October 23, 2018. It featured Vice President Mike Pence, chairman of the National Space Council, who answered questions about of any other object — dependent on a "Space Force." Also on the program were NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, Bill Nye and mass, and distance — and it’s not astronauts Chris Ferguson and Victor Glover who discussed the future of human spaceflight. special just because it’s caused by a black hole. If I could magically a rocket is in space, the vehicle and MYTH NO. 2 replace our sun with a black hole the astronauts carried by it still feel Black holes suck. that had exactly the same mass as our the pull of the planet’s gravity. No News outlets tend to describe these sun, our Earth would keep orbiting matter where they are, they have gravity wells as if they were oversize exactly where it is now, and similarly, some gravitational relationship with cosmic vacuums. “Black Hole Sucks those stars at the center of our galaxy objects — from distant planets to Down Star Stuff at 30 Percent will spend their entire lifetimes faraway stars — however faint it Speed of Light,” proclaimed a recent happily orbiting, with no danger of might be. You, too, experience the Discover magazine headline. The getting sucked in. In that sense, black tug of the entire universe, even if the website Futurism offered a survival holes are more like sinkholes than tug that you notice is from Earth. guide for those who somehow “get vacuums: One sinkhole in Florida Back on the space station, sucked into a black hole.” And then isn’t going to destroy the whole astronauts (and the station itself) there’s Beavis and Butthead, who Earth, but best not to get too close. are slowly falling toward, or more warned us that a black hole “sucks up technically around, the Earth. The the whole universe, and then it’s like, MYTH NO. 3 astronauts look and feel weightless it grinds it up and sends it all to hell The sun is yellow. because they do not experience the or something.” Every child has reached for the Earth pushing back up on them as In truth, black holes are a bunch of yellow crayon or marker when it’s they would if they took a tumble on mass crunched together into a tiny time to draw the sun. This common terra firma. If you’ve ever been in volume, creating a huge gravitational perception leads to articles like an elevator that descends quickly, field. Where their gravitational field one in Sciworthy that begins, “The dropping from under your feet, is strongest, not even light, the fastest yellow sun in our sky provides the you’ve had a tiny taste of what they thing in the universe, can escape. As light and energy needed to sustain experience all the time. a result, black holes have long been our planet.” Pretty forgivable, given

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burn out before we showed up a few hundred thousand years ago.” In the case of our sun, however, “burning” is a total misnomer. There is no combustion, fed by oxygen, to release the energy stored in the fuel. Stars generate energy through fusion, smashing together atoms deep in their cores like gigantic particle colliders. These fusion reactions take lighter elements, such as hydrogen, and smash them together to build heavier elements (like helium). When hydrogen atoms fuse together, they release energy, which eventually makes it out of the heart of the star AP In this image taken from NASA Television, the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft approaches the to shine into the universe. robotic arm for docking to the International Space Station, Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018. MYTH NO. 5 It would be hard to fly through the that even astronomers refer to the sun and scatters solar radiation before asteroid belt. as a “yellow dwarf.” And Superman it makes it to our eyes. Because To get past Mars, onward to famously gets his powers from his the higher-energy, bluer light gets Jupiter and beyond, one must pass proximity to “yellow stars.” scattered more, the light from the through the asteroid belt, a region Yet to understand the true color sun that reaches our eyes on Earth of space that harbors an especially of the sun, you have to know a little appears more yellow. But in space, large number of rocks. That sounds bit about light itself. Visible light, the sun would appear white to us. dangerous, at least to some science the kind that human eyes can see, is fans who write into sites like “Ask just a tiny fraction of the energies of MYTH NO. 4 an Astronomer.” Usually, people’s light in the universe. Mixed together, The sun is on fire. ideas about the asteroid belt come all this light appears white — but As it turns out, when you take the from scenes in sci-fi movies like The the colors of the rainbow, from red incredibly dynamic surface of the Empire Strikes Back, where Han Solo to violet, are different energies of sun, and colorize it in yellows and nimbly navigates the Millennium light that your eyes can see (red is at oranges, it looks a whole lot like fire. Falcon through a dangerous field the lower energy end of the visible Perhaps that’s why we often embrace strewn with jagged, flying boulders. spectrum, violet is towards the high a fiery vocabulary to describe it, In reality, we’ve successfully sent energy end). By the time light from as the band They Might Be Giants numerous NASA missions to study the sun hits your eyes (hopefully not did when they referred to the sun the outer solar system, no bobbing directly: please don’t look straight as a “nuclear furnace.” Astronomers or weaving required. At the extreme at it!), it has traveled across the also speak of the sun “burning ” speeds they travel — tens of thousands solar system and through Earth’s hydrogen, and Popular Science of miles per hour — spacecraft atmosphere which bends, filters writes that we’re lucky “it didn’t don’t need to hit a boulder to be

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annihilated. (Just over two years ago, a window on the International Space Station was seriously damaged by a mere paint chip.) Navigating the asteroid belt in our solar system, however, is a piece of cake: While it does have a lot of rocks flying around in it compared with other regions of space, those rocks are still incredibly far apart — hundreds of thousands of miles, on average. So, if you’re ever on a road trip with C-3PO, and he claims that “the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES The spacecraft took this photo of the asteroid Bennu from a distance of 85 miles. It is the 3,720 to 1 ,” you can tell him to chill smallest object ever orbited by a spacecraft. Osiris-REx will gather rocks from Bennu's out and enjoy the view. surface, survey the landscape and explore Bennu's makeup.

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Opinions

Ho/AFP/Getty Images One of the last full views of Saturn by the Cassini spacecraft, taken on Oct. 28, 2016. This is exactly the wrong time to retreat from space On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin bounded across the lunar surface as Michael Collins orbited above. We now sail across our solar system. Rovers gambol on Mars, the Cassini spacecraft just plunged through a gap in the rings of Saturn, and the Voyager spacecraft soars into interstellar space, more than 13 billion miles away, still sending back signals to Earth.

But proposed budgets drastically cut support for telescopes that tell us about the universe’s origins and spacecraft that trace the changes on our home planet. And the United States has stood on the sidelines as nations across the world develop the next generation of land-based optical observatories.

Rarely has there been a more exciting and promising time for space science. Telescopes pointing deep into space detect thousands of planets orbiting faraway suns. Life may reside in the ocean worlds of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn or be revealed in the ancient history of Mars. Gravitational-wave observatories probe the inner workings of black holes, like the

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one at the center of our galaxy. We have the opportunity to understand the origins of dark matter and dark energy, which constitute 95 percent of the universe but remain mysterious. The United States has been a remarkable engine of innovation, creating knowledge for the ages and solving society’s problems today. We have the talent and the entrepreneurial spirit to build on our grand history of discovery. We need only the vision and the will. February 20, 2018

Thomas F. Rosenbaum, Pasadena, Calif. The writer, a physicist, is president of the California Institute of Technology.

Edward C. Stone, Pasadena, Calif. The writer is a professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology, project scientist for the Voyager mission and former director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Discussion Questions: Answer on your own paper. 1. What facts are established in the first paragraph? What is the time period covered?

2. The second paragraph begins with “but.” What contrast do the writers present?

3. What credentials do the two writers have to give them authority and to indicate their likely perspective?

4. The third paragraph is their persuasive argument. Which three points do you find most interesting?

5. Do you agree with their arguments, especially those found in the last two sentences? Explain why you do or do not agree with them.

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Opinions The mission to Mars is one stupid leap for mankind

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Vice President Pence opens the first meeting of the National Space Council.

circuses. In our day, it’s moon bases last week to revive a long-dormant By David Von Drehle and missions to Mars. presidential commission and get Columnist Europe is splintering. North American astronauts back into Korea has gone full “Dr. space. Strangelove.” Disaster in Puerto Perhaps you thought our Rico. Massacre in Las Vegas. astronauts never left space. Haven’t • Originally Published October 6, 2017 Crickets chirping on Capitol Hill, they been space walking, repairing where Republican promises go to telescopes, performing experiments Juvenal, that biting pundit of the die. With so much to be done and and making music videos up there Roman Empire, complained of weak few plans for doing it, the people for years? Turns out those missions leaders distracting the people with need to be distracted. So Vice take place in “low Earth orbit,” “panem et circenses” — bread and President Pence was trotted out less than 350 miles from home.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Millions of kids have ventured zero atmosphere to hold the with food — so much that the ever- farther to attend college than our warmth, the planet cools off growing human population has astronauts have traveled from Earth overnight to around 90 degrees never been better nourished than these past 45 years. below zero at the equator. The today. There are wondrous things to Though Pence’s commission is average temperature, according to see, such as Yellowstone, the Louvre unlikely to tell you, there are very NASA, is 81 below. and Willie Nelson. good reasons Americans, and other Still, a human traveler to Mars The vice president touted the humans, abruptly stopped going should make the most of its airless commercial prospects for humans in deep into space. It’s deadly. It’s monotony, because there is no space, but that, too, is a distraction. unnecessary. And to borrow from coming back. The long passage There is no economic enterprise Gertrude Stein, there’s no there through the vacuum of space will (apart from space tourism) that can there. expose astronauts to intense and be done more efficiently by humans Doubtless, Americans could return prolonged bombardment by cosmic in space than by space robots or to the moon, and even stay there for rays and unimpeded solar radiation humans on the ground. It’s all pie in a while. It would cost vast sums, — a death sentence for which the sky. but we have good credit and high NASA has no solution (though Other promoters of moon bases tolerance for debt. The question is scientists continue to seek one). At and Mars colonies are doomsday why. The moon is still the same the Hotel Mars, you can check out theorists, grimly laboring under dead, dusty desert we left in 1972. any time you like, but you can never the belief that humans are going to Ice-covered Antarctica and the leave. destroy the Earth and need to have Sarahan sands are both far more What’s more, Mars is a dead end. a lifeboat ready. This is dangerous hospitable to human life than the As fatally desolate and brutal as thinking. For all the troubles in moon. Mars is, our neighbor planet is the our current home, they are small A moon base makes zero sense most habitable destination for many, compared with the problems of on its own terms, so it’s pitched as many light years in any direction. living in a terrarium on a frozen a trampoline to Mars. Face it: The Science fiction can be seductive. rock under skies composed of 95 Red Planet has the best PR in the Of course we want to boldly go percent carbon dioxide. If we have solar system. What Scientology is where no one has gone before. But money and energy and brainpower to creepy movie stars, Mars travel is space exploration is a job for robots, enough to build settlements on to swashbuckling billionaires. Elon not humans. Nature has adapted distant wastelands, we are better Musk, Richard Branson and Jeffrey us exquisitely and precisely for off deploying those resources to P. Bezos (owner of The Post) have life in one particular ecosystem preserve the bountiful planet we all set their sights on the fourth rock in one remote corner of an already have. from the sun, with Musk saying he incomprehensibly vast universe. The vast and murderous universe hopes to die there — “just not on But here’s the good news: It’s has conspired to maroon the human impact.” a really nice ecosystem! Earth race — but what a wonderful island Boosterish scientists report that is blanketed with a breathable we’re on. Rather than go in search midday temperatures may reach a atmosphere, and the gravity’s just of dust bowls to die in, let us send balmy 60-plus degrees on the Mars right to hold us in place without our robot eyes and ears to explore version of St. Tropez, but Musk crushing our bodies. There is snow the lifeless seas of space, marveling better pack a heavy snowsuit to go for skiing, and there are beaches at their findings while giving thanks with his Speedo. Having virtually for tanning. Land and seas teem that we’re not with them.

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PRO-CON | A Difference of Opinion

Letters to the editor, guest commentary and the columns of Post columnists add to the mix of opinions and diverse points of view that The Washington Post provides to stimulate conversation, encourage dialogue and introduce expert perspectives.

Read the letter to the editor contributed by Robert Zubrin and Homer Hickam. After discussing and summarizing their main points, read a reader’s response to their ideas.

Letters to the Editor • Opinion

We have the technology to build a colony on the moon. Let’s do it.

December 10, 2018 Late last year, President Trump directed NASA to “lead the return of humans to the moon.” For most folks, the meaning of this was pretty clear: Americans would soon walk on the moon again. The space agency, however, had another idea. In NEIL A. ARMSTRONG/AP Astronaut Buzz Aldrin is photographed on the moon by Neil February, NASA announced that it is planning to build Armstrong during the first lunar landing nearly 50 years ago. the Gateway, a mini-space station that would orbit the moon — for no apparent reason. This is all just plain weird. It’s like building a big, The vague description of the space station on NASA’s expensive aircraft carrier, positioning it off the European website offers little clarity. There’s no certainty as to coast and requiring passengers going from New York to when it would be built, what it would be used for or why Paris to land there first and do something (although what it is needed. Half a billion dollars are already dedicated to isn’t known) until another airplane is built to pick them the Gateway this fiscal year without any obvious plan to up to carry them to their destination. This, we suspect, is do anything with the money except spend it. Beyond that, not the best way to get to France. the budget isn’t known but is certain to be huge. NASA Rather than build this murky Gateway, which we further revealed the obtuseness of the project by noting frankly doubt the American people will understand or that it doesn’t know whether it would be permanently support, we believe the best expenditure of time and crewed or only occasionally visited or what exactly the money is to simply make it a national goal to build a astronauts would do when aboard. base on the lunar surface. Such a base would be similar As for landing people on the moon, NASA is vague to the U.S. South Pole Station and constructed for the about that, too. Apparently, if we wanted to build a lander same reasons: science, exploration, knowledge, national sometime in the future, it would rendezvous with the prestige, and economic and technological development Gateway for some reason and then attempt a landing. for the benefit of the U.S. taxpayer.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program This plan, which we call Moon Direct, doesn’t take combining solar energy with lunar water, we could rocket scientists to comprehend (although we both hold produce rocket propellant for the LEV to use to fly that title). And we could accomplish it in just three back to Earth and to travel around the moon. This discrete phases: First, we deliver cargo to the lunar water would also be available to support human life. surface and initiate robotic construction. Second, we A key goal of the second phase is to get propellant land crews on the base, complete construction and production going on the moon. Until it is, we would develop local resources. And third, we establish long- send the LEV with fuel for the round trip on a heavy- term habitation and exploration. … lift rocket to orbit, followed by a relatively cheap, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy booster, which can launch medium-lift rocket with the crew. The crew would 60 tons to Earth orbit and 10 tons to the moon, could rendezvous with the LEV, park their capsule in Earth easily handle the first phase. And NASA’s Space orbit and then ride the spacecraft to the lunar base. Launch System, still in development, might eventually After they complete their mission, the crew would be used along with heavy lift rockets such as Blue blast off from the moon with the LEV, fly back to their Origin’s New Glenn and the United Launch Alliance’s capsule in Earth orbit and journey home, leaving the Vulcan. (Blue Origin’s founder, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns LEV behind for its next crew. The Post.) Rather than spend a fortune and take years It’s simple, straightforward and very doable with the to build a Gateway for obscure reasons, we could technology at hand. immediately go straight to the surface of the moon and The third phase awould have continuous operations, set up shop. including propellant production on the lunar surface. The key to crew operations, the second phase of With this infrastructure, all it would take to get to the building our moon base, is a spacecraft we call the moon is a medium-lift rocket and the clear weather to Lunar Excursion Vehicle, which would operate outside launch it. our atmosphere and therefore need no heavy heat If we’re serious about going to the moon, let’s just go shields or Earth landing systems. The LEV would there. Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the fly from Earth’s orbit to the lunar surface and back first moon landing, reminding us of the sort of things again. New York to Paris, Paris to New York. Nothing we as a nation once accomplished. We should resolve could be simpler. All we would need to do is get to the now to do no less. airport — in this case, low Earth orbit — where the Let’s put aside these murky plans to orbit the moon LEV would be “parked” for refueling and used again in a can for no good reason. Let’s build a base on the and again, just like a passenger airplane. moon where not only Americans can take small steps “Paris,” by the way, should be near one of the lunar in the peaceful pursuit of knowledge, but also where poles — where sunlight shines nearly all the time and the world can take giant leaps toward opening of a new ice deposits sit in permanently shadowed craters. By frontier.

Robert Zubrin is president of the Mars Society and Pioneer Astronautics and the author of “The Case for Mars.”

Homer Hickam is a former NASA engineer and the author of multiple books, including the memoir “Rocket Boys,” which was made into the film “October Sky.”

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Forget the colony on the moon. We should shoot for space achievements of real value. December 13, 2018 I take exception to the Dec. 11 Tuesday Opinion column by Robert Zubrin and Homer Hickam, “Let’s be bold and build a colony on the moon.” Space has provided society with innumerable benefits, from preventing a third world war (thanks to spy satellites and, ironically, bill anders/nasa Moon shot taken on Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon. nuclear missiles) to communications, weather prediction and scientific discoveries. But space is not a 21st-century analogue of a romantic New World or Trekish Final Frontier. be made habitable, it would be easier, faster and more Humans need a very finely tuned set of environmental productive to apply those remedies to Earth. conditions to survive, from temperature to atmospheric Proponents of this fabrication mislead young minds composition to a protective magnetic field. The notion whose talents could otherwise be channeled toward that the moon or Mars could be a replacement for our space achievements of real value and for which human Earth slowly degraded by climate change and pollution physical presence is completely unnecessary, such as a — whether natural or man-made — does not pass the radio astronomy observatory on the radio-quiet far side giggle test: We already know that the moon and Mars of the moon. are unsuitable for human habitation, and if they could Antonio Elias, McLean

Discussion Questions: Answer on your own paper. 1. What are three main ideas presented by Zubrin and Hickam?

2. Notice how brief reader responses are. The writers must be specific and address main ideas with which they agree, disagree or have additional information to add for clarification and elucidation. What is the main point made by Antonio Elias?

3. In what areas might the three writers agree?

4. Do you find one piece more compelling and persuasive than the other? Do you need additional information before you agree or disagree with the writers? For example, read more about the Gateway project to see if it is fairly represented.

5. What do you think about establishing a lunar base?

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Select one of the following opinion pieces. After establishing the point of view of the writer, write a response. Do you agree with the writer — especially on certain points? Do you disagree with the writer — especially concerning particular arguments? Do you partially agree, but qualify to what extent? Be sure to be specific in your examples to counter or elaborate on the topic. ● Buzz Aldrin: The next giant leap for space ● Three cheers for space robots exploration By Daniel Britt February 3, 2016 January 7, 2019 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin wp/2016/02/03/buzz-aldrin-the-next-giant-leap-for- ions/2019/01/07/three-cheers-space-robots/?utm_ space-exploration/?utm_term=.10792a7cec2c term=.8ddb3f52cb80

● “The mission to Mars is one stupid leap ● “No, human space exploration is not a for mankind” dead end” By David Von Drehle, columnist By Marillyn Hewson, chairman, president and chief Oct. 6, 2017 executive of Lockheed Martin Corp. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini Oct. 13, 2017 ons/the-mission-to-mars-is-one-stupid-leap- https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-hu for-mankind/2017/10/06/24078102-aac2-11e7- man-space-exploration-is-not-a-dead- 850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html?utm_ end/2017/10/13/808f257c-af88-11e7-a908-a3470754b term=.13133f70395d bb9_story.html?utm_term=.c954a50cd31c

● ● The Cassini mission embodies the best “Tom Toles: If you are prepared to die, the of humanity Mars colony is a good bet for you” Post Editorial Board September 28, 2016 September 15, 2017 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opin https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the- ions/wp/2016/09/28/if-you-are-prepared-to- cassini-mission-embodies-the-best- die-the-mars-colony-is-a-good-bet-for-you/?utm_ of-humanity/2017/09/15/d2944c66-9a3a- term=.50755b63e105 11e7-b569-3360011663b4_story.html?utm_ term=.6ccc55a32aad

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e - Replica Inside e-Replica

Explore e-Replica | Search and Monitor

Conduct an Advanced Search Are you looking for media coverage of space exploration, the latest discoveries or the people involved in specific projects? Take advantage of e-Replica search features. • Select Advanced Search under the Search option. • Type in the subject or area of your search under Find Results. • Select the time frame under Date.

Work in pairs to locate information about the following. Be sure to record the headline, byline and date of publication. Summarize the information in one paragraph.

Monitor Future Coverage Locate the Monitor feature. Set your topics to receive the most specific results. You will be alerted when the person, project or event involving your topic appears in The Post. Select and establish monitors for three of the above topics. Find the Answers Apollo missions New Horizons Bennu Odyssey spacecraft Chang’e 4 probe Orion China National Space OSIRIS-Rex Administration Parker Solar Probe Hubble Space Telescope Space Force InSight explorer

Use the e-Replica Search feature to find the answers to these questions. All were covered in The Washington Post. 1. What problem did China’s Chang’e 4 spacecraft overcome? 2. How did the China National Space Administration solve this problem? 3. What images has Osiris-Rex sent to NASA? 4. What has the New Horizons spacecraft done since it flew past “Ultima Thule” on January 1, 2019? 5. On January 9, 2019, NASA reported a glitch affecting the Hubble Space Telescope. What was the problem? Were engineers able to find a solution?

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BUSINESS Virgin Galactic craft crosses threshold of space

Christian Davenport, Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post Richard Branson's company got ahead in the race for commercial spaceflight once its manned spacecraft reached more than 50 miles high.

Though it did not reach orbit, aiming to fly civilians on a regular by Christian Davenport the flight was the first launch of basis. The flight was bold and risky, a spacecraft from U.S. soil with and following a fatal crash from humans on board to reach the edge four years ago, reminiscent in its • Originally Published December 14, 2018 of space since the Space Shuttle was daring of a bygone era of human retired in 2011. And it effectively spaceflight. MOJAVE, Calif. — Virgin Galactic opens a new era in human It comes at a time when NASA launched a spacecraft more than 50 spaceflight, one where companies is still forced to rely on Russia to miles high Thursday, reaching the are working to end governments’ fly its astronauts to orbit and faces Federal Aviation Administration’s long held monopoly on space, criticism that its aversion to risk has definition of space and capturing a aiming to push farther faster. replaced the youthful audacity that long-elusive goal for the company Though it just scratched the helped it put men on the moon. founded by Richard Branson that lowest edge of where many believe With the flight — taking place one day wants to fly tourists through space begins, the launch had huge on a chilly morning shortly after the atmosphere. implications for a growing industry sunrise — Virgin can claim an edge

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program in the race for human spaceflight, as broke the sound barrier in 1947. The are in the test flight program of a a number of companies, including spacecraft reached a height of 51.4 space company you can never be SpaceX, Blue Origin and Boeing, miles, hitting a top speed of Mach completely 100 percent sure.” work to develop spacecraft capable 2.9, before descending and returning Stucky, the pilot in command for of flying people. the company’s space port in Mojave. the mission, said it went as smoothly With two seasoned pilots in the On the ground, a gaggle of press, as it could have — and well enough cockpit — Mark “Forger” Stucky space enthusiasts, including Branson for him to perform a victory barrel and C.J. Sturckow — the vehicle and his guests, watched the flight, roll as the spacecraft returned to known as SpaceShipTwo was ferried tilting their heads skyward. Branson, Earth. to an altitude of about 43,000 feet wearing a leather bomber jacket, “That was rather incredible,” he by a mother ship. Like a bomb, hugged his son as the spacecraft said. Seeing “the dark sky was the spacecraft was released into a raced upward and a commentator great. Everything just worked great. free fall before the pilot ignited the called out the altitude. ...We had tons of extra propellant. engine, propelling the spaceplane “It’s been 14 long years to get Had plenty of time to look around.” faster than the speed of sound. here. We’ve had tears, real tears, Virgin Galactic has nearly 700 Soon, the vehicle pointed almost and moments of joy. So the tears people who have paid as much as straight up, as it streaked through today were tears of joy,” he told $250,000 for its suborbital joyrides the same skies over the California reporters afterward. “It was maybe — more than the 560 or so people desert where Chuck Yeager first tears of relief as well. When you who have ever been to space.

Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post Dave Mackay, chief test pilot for Virgin Galactic, climbs into a simulator for a test flight at the company’s headquarters. Virgin is preparing to launch people into space in the next several weeks.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Eventually the company wants to fly Ansari X prize and becoming the Elon Musk, and Boeing are under six passengers at a time. The FAA first privately funded vehicle to fly contract with NASA to fly astronauts plans to formally honor the pilots humans to space. to the International Space Station, the of Thursday’s flight by awarding Thursday’s launch was also orbiting laboratory, as early as next them commercial astronaut wings at a major milestone for a growing year. a ceremony in Washington next year. commercial space industry, which for As the plight of Virgin Galactic For Branson, the launch was the all its triumphs has yet to show it can shows, ending government’s long- culmination of years’ worth of lofty routinely fly humans into space. But held monopoly on human spaceflight dreams and tragic setbacks as he that may soon change. has been difficult. Despite the long sought to build what he calls “the Blue Origin, the space company odds, Branson started his quest to world’s first commercial spaceline.” founded by Jeffrey P. Bezos, also open space to the masses with his He founded Virgin Galactic after plans to fly tourists, though to a typical bravado, vowing the company buying the rights in 2004 to the higher altitude and with a rocket that would soon be taking tourists by the technology behind SpaceShipOne, launches vertically, not a spaceplane. hundreds on awe-inspiring jaunts to the spacecraft funded by Microsoft (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) the cosmos. co-founder Paul Allen that made Its first test flights with humans on But years passed, the program it to the edge of space three times board are scheduled for next year. suffered delay after delay and in that year, winning the $10 million SpaceX, the company founded by 2014, a fatal setback: The spacecraft

RINGO H.W. CHIU/ASSOCIATED PRESS Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashed Oct. 31, 2014, in Southern California’s Mojave Desert. One pilot was killed and another seriously injured.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program came apart midflight, killing Michael the company commercially viable, Galactic’s chief executive, said in a Alsbury, the pilot. he said. Once the test program recent interview. In 2016, he unveiled a new is finished, he said the operation Eventually, the company would like spaceplane, dubbed Unity, and will move next year to Spaceport to turn those spaceports into “future the company started its test America, the futuristic facility in hubs for a network of intercontinental program again, slowly pushing the New Mexico where it intends to fly transportation nodes” where the envelope on test flight after test its tourist flights. Branson has said he spaceships can transport people flight. Thursday’s flight was a key intends to be on the first commercial across the globe in a matter of hours. milestone that the company says flight. In the long term, the company will push it closer to flying tourists The company is now building two wants to fly “into major airports from Spaceport America, Virgin more spaceships in anticipation of because we have a winged vehicle Galactic’s futuristic launch facility the price coming down and more that can integrate smoothly in traffic in New Mexico. people signing up to fly. patterns,” Whitesides said. Branson said he has invested nearly Virgin’s ultimate goal is to build That goal is still “many years out,” $1 billion of his own money into the spaceports around the globe, “and he said. “But that’s the evolution — venture. “Space is not cheap,” he we’re operating multiple times a week so that at the end of it you’ve built said. at each one of those and enabling tens up, step-by-step, a capability to go Now Virgin is looking forward to of thousands of people to experience between continents in an hour or selling more tickets and making space,” George Whitesides, Virgin two.”