NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, commonly known as NASA, is the US independent governmental agency. It was established in 1958 with the aim of researching and developing vehicles and activities for the exploration of space within and outside Earth’s atmosphere. The organization is internally organized into four different divisions that clearly identify the purposes of the agency⁶⁵:

Aeronautics Research: dedicated to the development of advanced aviation technologies.

Science: this department deals with different programs dedicated to the understanding of the origin, structure and evolution of the Universe, the Solar System and space in general.

Space Technology: dedicated to the research and development of space science and exploration technologies.

Human Exploration and Operations: this section concerns all the management of crewed space missions, including all the ISS’s missions International Space Station’s missions . This department includes also all the operations related to space transportation, space communication with both crowded and robotic explorations programs and includes also all the activities related to space launch services.

65 (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2022)

Moreover, NASA constantly collaborates with numerous additional research centers that contributes to the realization of joint projects.

Figure 4.1 displays NASA’s space budget trends through the years and NASA’s budget by program in 2017⁶⁶.

Figure 4.1 – NASA’s space budget trend (from 2008 to 2017) and NASA’s budget by main programmes (2017)

Starting from the 60s⁶⁷ and for the following 50 years, the US space agency defined the strategy for the exploration of the use of space and coordinated the structure of the space market characterized by a strong government contribution. The agency has an active role in the majority of the space missions worldwide: through the years NASA contributed in successful projects such as the first man landing on the Moon in 1969, that positioned the agency as the most advanced global organization in terms of competences and investments.

In the last years NASA has been working on multiple projects and space missions, some of them developed jointly with other international space agencies, such as the ESA, and a another major part with a strict collaboration of private companies such as Space X and Blue Origin. An example is Artemis I⁶⁸, the mission that aims at putting the first woman

66 (OECD, 2019)

67 In response to the creation of the URSS’s first space programs.

68 (NASA, 2022)

and next man on the Moon, with the major objective of establishing a long-term and sustained presence there and then proceed further establishing a connection with Mars.

This mission is the most important example of how the various actors operating in the space industry can collaborate with each other to achieve multiple common goals. In the Artemis I mission, managed precisely by NASA, the European collaboration (through ESA) is evident. The European Space Agency has in fact contributed to the mission by developing the "Service Module", that is the powerhouse that fuels and propels the spacecraft in space. It provides propulsion, thermal control, and electrical power generated by solar arrays. On missions with astronauts, the service module will also provide life support systems for the crew including water, oxygen, and nitrogen. Second, some private companies play a crucial role in the mission. Blue Origin and Space X separately developed two proposals presented to NASA in 2020 regarding the “Human Landing System”, the system that will be used to transport human beings, with attached devices to conduct scientific experiments on the Moon’s surface. Blue Origin on its side presented the Blue Moon, a Lunar landing vehicle designed to provide reliable and cost- effective delivery of a wide variety of payloads to the lunar surface: the landing vehicle will be thus reusable. Blue Moon was also designed to be able to transport several tons of equipment on the Moon, including rovers and ascent rockets. The main objective of the vehicle will be that of facilitating science research, infrastructure development and logistics missions for government, academia, and commercial customers on the Moon's surface⁶⁹.

On the other hand, Space X, the actual winner of the call that will bring a human crew back to the Moon by 2024, has developed Starship, a Lunar landing vehicle born with a greater goal of bringing humans to the Moon. Starship represents a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to the Moon: it will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry in excess of 100 metric tons to Earth orbit⁷⁰.

69 (Blue Origin, 2022)

70 (Space X, 2022)

This type of collaborations are just one example of how national space agencies collaborate both with each other and with private entities, to achieve common goals including scientific research and the enormous commercial possibilities that a new and continuous lunar correspondence would bring. Space X and Blue Origin, as will be explained in the second part of this chapter, are pioneering companies in this and they already position themselves as industry leaders, collaborating on an ongoing basis with the various national and international space agencies.

According to NASA's 2020 "Economic Impact Study" of the agency⁷¹, commissioned by the agency to monitor the spin-offs it creates during 2019 fiscal year. Both in monetary and social terms, NASA has generated great benefits for the United States during fiscal year 2019. From an investment of approximately $ 7 billion from Federal, State and local taxes, the agency has⁷²:

Generated more than $ 64,3 billion in total economic output;

Supported more than 312,000 jobs nationwide.

This data make it clear how NASA, the space agency that pioneers the majority of the actual space achievements, compared to its direct competitors from other nations, operates in an economy that is capable of generating annual revenues ten times higher than the initial funds allocated. The data is just another example of the economic, technological but also social potential that the space industry currently represents.

The following section will deal with analyzing in detail the ESA, the European Space Agency. Although the agency was born after NASA and lives on the continuous support of the national agencies that compose it, the economic impact that the agency generates every year is very positive if we compare it to the contribution of the various countries.

The ESA, while setting itself different objectives from those of NASA, is still among one of the most important governmental entities in the world and it is a fundamental players

71 (The Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2020)

72 The results displayed are that of greater impact defined in the report, which however develops and considers various application areas of NASA’s investments and operations.

both in terms of internal initiative projects and in terms of supporting projects for external initiatives (as in the case of the Artemis I mission).