Faster, Please! · Economics & Policy
TIER 4 Wed, 2 Jul 2025 23:57:19 +0000
SpaceX may necessary, but it isn't sufficient ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ | | ---|---|--- | | | Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more --- _This is a free edition of_ _**Faster, Please!**_ ,_my regular newsletter about creating a better America and world by accelerating scientific discovery, technological progress, and commercial innovation. (And creating a pro-progress culture.) If you enjoy it and find it helpful in any way, please consider buying a subscription to the twice-weekly regular issues that include in-depth essays, Q &As with smart people, and summaries of relevant news stories. _ Upgrade to paid * * * # 🚀 Blue Origin and America's spacefaring future ### SpaceX may necessary, but it isn't sufficient | | James Pethokoukis --- | Jul 2 --- | --- --- | | | --- | | --- | | --- | | --- | | READ IN APP --- | | ---|---|--- My fellow pro-growth/progress/abundance Up Wingers, Before I get to the spectacular success of America's private space companies, I want to highlight my _deep concern_ at how the Trump administration is wielding the fiscal ax with unusual vigor at NASA. The White House is proposing cuts that would slash the space agency's budget by nearly a quarter and gut its science programs with a 50 percent reduction that would terminate 41 of 124 active missions. Not great! What makes this maneuver particularly brazen is the administration's apparent plan to sidestep Congress altogether. According to Ars Technica, the Office of Management and Budget has ordered NASA to draft "closeout plans" for dozens of missions, supposedly just for planning purposes. Reality check: The strategy seems designed to enact the president's budget priorities through administrative legerdemain, avoiding the need for congressional consent. Also not great. | | ---|---|--- According to NASA/Astronomy magazine, NASA's proposed 2026 budget would cancel or defund multiple missions (marked with X) and cut funding by 40 percent or more for others (marked with !). The visualization shows the scope of potential impacts across NASA's mission portfolio. Anyway, the casualties of the proposed cuts would be severe: the VERITAS and DAVINCI missions to Venus, Mars Sample Return, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution orbiter, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and even the stalwart Voyager probes would face termination. The OSIRIS-APEX mission to study asteroid Apophis, which will pass perilously close to Earth in 2029 , would also be axed, along with the LISA gravitational wave detector. Beyond the immediate scientific loss lies a deeper concern. Once all those missions go dark and their teams disperse, resurrecting them becomes nearly impossible if Washington should change its mind down the road. America risks ceding its capacity and leadership in planetary science just as China's ambitions -- and spending -- soars. None of this exactly screams "new American golden age." * * * Now onto what is a really encouraging development. Jeff Bezos gave Blue Origin the motto _gradatim ferociter_ , step by step, ferociously. Finally, it seems, the rocket company is picking up the pace. This year is shaping up to be both a turning point and a turn toward acceleration. The successful debut of the New Glenn rocket in January, a pending Mars mission this fall, and an increasingly aggressive push toward lunar landings suggest Blue Origin's long-awaited evolution from a centibillionaire's spacey side project to a credible (if still secondary) rival to Elon Musk's SpaceX. | | ---|---|--- New Glenn at liftoff on January 16, 2025 Of course, SpaceX remains the industry's juggernaut, with more than 500 launches, a self-sustaining cash machine in Starlink, and a projected 170 missions this year. Blue Origin, by contrast, has only recently joined the orbital club. Its New Glenn rocket reached space on its first try, validating key technologies like its seven-engine first stage. But the booster was lost during reentry, underscoring the wide gap with SpaceX's reusable Falcon fleet. That gap is narrowing, though. Blue Origin's second New Glenn mission, now scheduled for late 2025, will carry NASA's ESCAPADE spacecraft to Mars. More significantly, Blue Origin is preparing its Blue Moon MK1 cargo lander for flight in early 2026. (The crew-rated MK2 version is scheduled for a possible NASA Artemis V mission later in the decade.) As Eric Berger of Ars Technica writes, "Barring a major setback, it now appears highly likely that Blue Origin will beat SpaceX in landing a vehicle on the lunar surface." Meanwhile, SpaceX's Starship rocket has faced some serious ongoing challenges, with its most recent four test flights not meeting their planned objectives -- sometimes in explosive fashion. That (presumably short-lived) vulnerability is what gives Blue Origin an opening to land first on the Moon and to show NASA it can deliver on Bezos' vision and beyond. For now, though, Blue Origin's role will likely remain complementary, at best. With less than $1 billion in revenue versus SpaceX's $15 billion, and a _dramatically_ lower _-- _to put it generously -- launch cadence, its balance sheet and performance shortfall is enormous. For now, Blue Origin lacks a Starlink-style financial flywheel. Its near-term economic case depends on government contracts and Amazon's embryonic Kuiper satellite business. That said, Blue Origin no longer looks like merely a monumentally expensive hobby for the Amazon founder. If it nails its lunar lander timeline while Starship continues to drag, Bezos may finally claim a symbolic win in the billionaire space race. More importantly, America's future as the leading spacerfaring nation looks a bit more likely. Something like this, perhaps: _By 2050, America 's space ambitions will look less like science fiction and more like strategic infrastructure. Low-Earth orbit, once the domain of government astronauts, is now home to a quartet of private stations. Orbital factories generate $15 billion in annual exports. Tourism flourishes, with eight thousand passengers a year -- scientists, celebrities, and the ultrarich --rotating through microgravity hotels. Suborbital "Starships" make cargo runs from New York to Tokyo in 85 minutes._ _Further afield, a semi-permanent Artemis Base Camp hugs the rim of the Moon 's south pole. Blue Moon landers shuttle ice miners, engineers, and equipment. Lunar regolith shields habitats; solar towers feed power-hungry bioreactors. NASA's Gateway outpost has grown into a bustling logistics hub, with one commercial node leased to biotech firms. Monthly crew rotations are sustained by orbital propellant depots, filled using water extracted from Shackleton Crater._ _Mars hosts a six-person base near Valles Marineris, supplied by nuclear-thermal tugs and powered by methane cracked from the red planet 's CO₂ and ice. It opens for business each synodic launch window, repeating the Moon's template of small steps backed by corporate ledgers._ _A gigawatt-scale solar power array in geostationary orbit now beams electricity to California. A relocated asteroid offers in-space metals. The U.S. Space Force, meanwhile, manages orbital traffic and keeps watch with rapid-launch satellites and laser-equipped drones. America 's presence in space, once exploratory, is now economic, strategic, and enduring. [Scenario written with the help of ChatGPT 4o.]_ SpaceX looks to be a key player such a future, but there needs to be many other participants, including Blue Origin. Such will be the foundation of a golden Space Age for America. Upgrade to paid Share * * * | | ---|---|--- As Congress Does Less, The Courts Are Doing More Breaking news: _The Dispatch_ has acquired SCOTUSblog, the gold standard in Supreme Court analysis. Reliable coverage of the Supreme Court has never been more important. With an unbridled executive branch and a Congress eager to surrender its constitutional prerogatives, the federal judiciary is playing an increasingly important role in shaping the country's direction. Join 600,000 loyal readers and check out _The Dispatch_ today. No insulting clickbait, no false outrage, no annoying auto-play videos--just reliable journalism that helps you understand the big decisions that will shape our nation's future. **Faster, Please! readers: Take 25% off a** _**Dispatch**_**membership today** Claim your 25% off membership * * * ## **Micro Reads** _Please check out thewebsite or Substack app for the latest Up Wing economic, business, and tech news contained in this new edition of the newsletter. Lots of great stuff!_ Faster, Please! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid You're currently a free subscriber to Faster, Please!. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. Upgrade to paid --- | | | Like --- | | Comment --- | | Restack --- (C) 2025 James Pethokoukis 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 Unsubscribe