So I kind of rambled about this in therapy but I think it's worth sharing, and I think one of the things that really gets me about space travel is like.......it really is turning swords into ploughshares. I've seen a lot of cynicism from people asserting that it's the opposite, that space travel is used as a cover to develop military technology, but that really isn't the case.
NASA I would say is the most infamous example. Like it or not, NASA got to where it is today through Operation: Paperclip, most notably through the recruitment of Werner von Braun, who during WWII developed the V1 and V2 rockets along with other devastasting technology and horrific exploitation and murder of Jews, Roma, and political prisoners. I vehemently condemn the clemency afforded to von Braun and all the other Nazi scientists recruited by Operation: Paperclip and similar operations conducted by other members of the Allied powers. However. Given a choice between these scientists continuing to make weapons of war or putting their skills towards the development of a space program, I heartedly choose the latter. Initially, von Braun did work to make weapons for the US, but eventually he was put to work on the fledgling space program. Technology initially conceptualized for war was used to put people in space, to put people on the moon.
On the other side of the Cold War, the Soviet space program also used technology initially developed for war. The rocket that launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1, was designed initially as the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The Vostok rocket, which would launch the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space, was also a variant on a modified R-7. Both the Soviets and the Americans were using missile technology that could have been used for horrible things, but instead they used it for space travel. The space race was an extension of Cold War hostilities between the West and the Soviets, but it was an example of a competition that did not involve war. It was a competition of intelligence, of science, and I am absolutely not discounting all the animals and people that died in the process of developing such technology.......but it's nothing compared to what it could have been has these hostilities been expressed through combat.
Even today, people complain about space programs being expensive, about the money going to NASA and other countries' programs as being money that could be used to feed or house people....but that money could have also gone into war. The massive amounts of fuel that go into a space rocket launch is fuel that could have been used to fuel tanks and missiles and warplanes. The brilliant minds employed in every step of a space mission are minds that could have been used to develop weapons, but instead they are used to push the boundaries of human exploration and understanding of the cosmos.
Additionally, astronauts and cosmonauts and taikonauts and all other space travellers become national and international heroes who have made incredible achievements not through being champions of war, but through being explorers. They are figures that people can rally around and be proud of, but they are not soldiers. In the US, NASA has close associations with the military, and many astronauts are former military pilots, but NASA is not military. NASA and other space agencies actively demonstrate that there are ways other than war to achieve greatness.
Another great thing about space travel is that explorers and adventurers have been heroes in public consciousness for a long time- just look at the way cowboys and pioneers and Christopher Columbus have been glorified in American culture. But unlike the global navigators and explorers of the Columbian age, and unlike the pioneers of the age of American westward expansion, and unlike so many other explorers in history, there is no concern with displacing and exploiting the indigineous people and biomes and resources in the lands explored when it comes to outer space. Perhaps this would become an issue if we discovered alien life on other planets, but that has yet to happen. For now, it's just us Earthlings in the vastness of space. Humans landing on the moon didn't displace or exterminate any native Moon-dwellers. Space travel allows humans to express the natural human desire to explore and discover without the prevalent side-effect of such exploration that occurs on Earth.
Finally, space travel is unifying. These days, a lot of space travel is cooperative. The International Space Station is an excellent example of this, with five participating space agencies, and its predescessor, the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission, became known as the "handshake in space" in the midst of the Cold War. Putting cameras and people far enough in space to be able to look back at Earth as a single planet really puts things into perspective. We are one planet, as far as we know, alone in the universe. We really only have each other. Space travel has proven time and time again that it can unite us, and I believe it still can. Christina Koch, one of the four astronauts who last week went farther into space than any human had ever gone before, said that "we will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other.” And I think that's what we need to hear.
וְשָׁפַט֙ בֵּ֣ין הַגּוֹיִ֔ם וְהוֹכִ֖יחַ לְעַמִּ֣ים רַבִּ֑ים וְכִתְּת֨וּ חַרְבוֹתָ֜ם לְאִתִּ֗ים וַחֲנִיתֽוֹתֵיהֶם֙ לְמַזְמֵר֔וֹת לֹא־יִשָּׂ֨א ג֤וֹי אֶל־גּוֹי֙ חֶ֔רֶב וְלֹֽא־יִלְמְד֥וּ ע֖וֹד מִלְחָמָֽה׃
"And He (G-d) shall judge among the nations and arbritrate for the many people, and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation against nation shall not take up a sword, and they shall not learn war any longer." Isaiah 2:4
What is the transformation of war technology into space exploration techonology but a fulfilment of this prophecy? The missiles are beaten into space travel rockets, the fighter pilots into astronauts. Legions of scientists are learning space exploration instead of war. Nations who would otherwise be engaged in war cooperate in space.
I think anyone who calls themself a pacifist, or at least anyone who is critical of war and hopes to see less of it, and anyone who wants to eventually see world peace and unity, should appreciate space travel for how much good it has done and how much good it has the potential to do. Aside from all the research done in space that has gone towards other things to benefit humanity in the realm of medicine and technology and biology and geology, space travel really can (and has) improved society. I truly believe that despite how chaotic the world seems right now, despite how much war and factionalism and polarization there is in the world, we are still far more united as a species than we have been for most of history, and that is in no small part due to space travel. We still have a long way to go, we still have more work to do, but the achievements space travel has been able to accomplish gives me hope. A better world is possible, and I believe that we have it in us to see the complete fulfilment of the prophecy, that "they shall not learn war any longer."
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