The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Episode: The New Space Race: NASA, China, and Jeff Bezos
Date: July 11, 2019
Host: Dorothy Wickenden
Guest: Rivka Galchen, New Yorker contributor

Overview

In this episode, Dorothy Wickenden and Rivka Galchen explore the rebirth of the space race fifty years after Apollo 11’s landing. The conversation moves beyond nostalgia to dissect today’s crowded field of national and private space ambitions—chiefly those of China, NASA, and commercial players like Jeff Bezos. The discussion dives into the political, economic, and ethical stakes of returning to the Moon, the rationale behind moon mining, private-public partnerships, and the inevitable tensions around the militarization and commercialization of space.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Apollo Legacy and What Came Next

• [01:15] The 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 prompts reflection on how that mission symbolized Cold War-era American technological and political achievement.
  • Classic JFK quote (at Rice University) underscores the ambitious, unifying spirit:
    JFK: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard..." [01:58]
• [03:35] Why did the US step back from the Moon?
  • Galchen: The Vietnam War redirected funding and attention; Apollo was successful but extremely expensive and primarily seen as a political and international power statement.
• [04:22] Most presidents post-Nixon have floated ambitious moon plans, but Congress resisted diverting funds—summed up by planetary scientist Bruce Hapka: "Congress decided we couldn't have guns and the moon at the same time." [04:42]

2. NASA’s Shifting Role and Goals

• [05:13] NASA continued scientific innovation (Hubble, Mars rovers), but nothing matched Apollo’s mythic status.
• [05:50] Current focus is returning astronauts to the Moon—yet plagued by the familiar “Charlie and Lucy football” scenario, with shifting funds and priorities:
  • Galchen: "One arm of NASA gets all ready to kind of go to Mars, and then the football gets moved." [05:50]
• [06:33] NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine claims a five-year return is possible—if adequately funded.

3. The Rise of Private Players: Public-Private Space Race

• [06:50] NASA increasingly relies on private companies, approving 9+ firms for moon-aimed contracts.

  • Galchen: The administration's mantra: “anything that a private company can do, should be outsourced to a private company.” [06:57]

• [07:24] The “FedEx to space” model:

  • Instead of grand exploration, it’s utilities—WI-Fi equivalents, delivery robots, etc.
  • Galchen: "These companies are saying, we can build a robot... that can go and take photos of the surface of the moon, and we can do it much cheaper than NASA can." [07:30]

• [08:06] Profit Motive?

  • No immediate profitability—companies depend on government as a steady customer, similar to early air travel’s reliance on US mail contracts.

4. Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin, and Lunar Industry

• [08:50] Blue Origin envisions zoning the Moon for heavy industry and the Earth for "light industry and residential purposes."
  • Wickenden: "I’m sort of struck by that... The title of one of their events was 'going to space to benefit the Earth.'" [09:14]
  • Galchen: The motivating story is moving environmentally harmful industries off Earth—but acknowledges the plans’ secrecy and ethical ambiguity.

5. Mining the Moon: Water and Rare Minerals

• [10:09] Mining lunar water isn’t about direct scarcity on Earth, but because water can be turned into rocket fuel—enabling the Moon as a space-fueling station for deeper exploration.

  • Galchen: "So once you have your own fuel source on the moon, then you don’t have to shuttle back and forth and bring fuel from Earth..." [10:09]
  • Wickenden: "So in that scenario, the moon becomes a fueling station, effectively, to launch rockets and satellites to Mars and beyond." [10:44]

• [10:52] Commercial interest in precious metals is high, but most scientists doubt short-term feasibility for profit.

6. The Commercialization (and Commodification) of Space

• [11:50] Japanese companies booking lunar landers for advertising and branding—feels "crass," exporting earthly consumerism to space.

  • Galchen: "What’s heartbreaking... is you can have a lot of hopeful feelings about humanity on Earth, but those don't seem to be things propelling us out to the literal regions of space. Instead, it's the sort of old story of seize and grab and extract." [12:17]

• [12:39] Funeral company Celestis plans space burials, but has yet to deliver remains to the Moon. [12:53]

7. The Military and Political Stakes

• [13:12] Trump’s proposed “Space Force” echoes Reagan’s “Star Wars.”
  • Wickenden: "He said, our goal is to ensure that we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States anywhere, anytime..." [13:12]
  • Galchen: Most countries have some militarization of space; India demonstrated anti-satellite technology recently. [13:55]
  • The “Space Force” will likely not exist as described, but space is already quietly militarizing.

8. Governance, Law, and Ownership in Space

• [14:38] With many nations and companies investing in space, territorial and resource disputes loom large.
  • Galchen: Legal frameworks are lagging—space laws resemble high seas fishing: "If you catch some fish... those fish are yours." [14:54]
  • Currently, there is a regulatory vacuum—“something between the Wild West and the high seas.” [14:54]

9. The Earth-First Argument: Ethics and Opportunity Costs

• [15:30] Then as now, critics ask: shouldn't these resources be used for Earthly needs—climate change, inequality, and social programs?
  • Galchen: The reality is political—space funding often comes from military budgets, not social spending.
  • She calls it the “collateral poetry of scientific funding.” [16:08]
  • "It’s a depressing and difficult kind of math because of course it probably would be more well spent. But one can't imagine the political situation in which that would happen, at least right now." [16:08]

Notable Quotes

• John F. Kennedy ([01:58]):
  "We choose to go to the moon... Not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
• Bruce Hapka (quoted by Galchen) ([04:42]):
  "Congress decided we couldn't have guns and the moon at the same time."
• Rivka Galchen ([05:50]):
  "One arm of NASA gets all ready to kind of go to Mars, and then the football gets moved."
• Rivka Galchen ([07:30]):
  "These companies are saying, we can build a robot that we can drop on the moon that can go and take photos of the surface of the moon, and we can do it much cheaper than NASA can."
• Rivka Galchen ([12:17]):
  "...it’s the sort of old story of seize and grab and extract."
• Rivka Galchen ([14:54]):
  "Unfortunately, the laws are far behind the political and technological situation. It's basically a sort of something between the Wild west and the high seas."
• Rivka Galchen ([16:08]):
  "...the ‘collateral poetry of scientific funding’... one can’t imagine the political situation in which [spending space funds on environmental issues] would happen, at least right now."

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:58] JFK's Moon Speech
• [03:35] Why Apollo Ended
• [05:20] NASA's Post-Apollo Work
• [06:50] Shift to Private-Public Space Collaborations
• [08:50] Jeff Bezos/Blue Origin's Moon Vision
• [10:09] Moon Mining: Water and Minerals
• [12:17] The Consumerization of Space
• [13:12] The Military and “Space Force”
• [14:54] Space Law and Ownership
• [15:30] The Earth-First Funding Argument

Conclusion

This episode offers an incisive, sometimes sobering look at 21st-century space dreams. While new moon shots ignite technical and entrepreneurial ambition, Galchen and Wickenden lay bare underlying realities—government reticence, the uneasy handoff from public to private hands, and unresolved questions about who benefits from the new space race. The romance of space endures, but as Galchen remarks, so too do age-old motives of power, extraction, and competition—leaving open whether the next giant leap will be one for all humankind.