Race to Space E-Book

Andreas Dripke

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

The race to space is underway. Far beyond mere exploration, it is primarily about political, economic, and military power. The superpowers - the USA, China and Russia - as well as Europe, are fiercely competing for dominance in space, just as billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson seek to propel themselves into the ranks of trillionaires through their space business. Under the term "New Space", the race for the commercialization of space is in full swing. It's about mining resources on other planets as well as the multibillion-dollar space tourism market. The construction of a Moon base and the colonization of Mars are as concretely planned as massive space-crat. Additionally, thousands of satellites orbit our planet to monitor Earth's activities and ensure internet coverage in the most remote corners. We stand at the beginning of a new era. "The book reads like science fiction, but it is all reality" - The Press.

Leseprobe

Dedication

This book is dedicated to international understanding. While the space race in its first phase was characterized above all by the aggressive confrontation between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the second phase saw international cooperation after the end of the Cold War in order to jointly master what is probably mankind's greatest adventure – the journey into space. Unfortunately, the current third phase is once again characterized by strife and discord, by a struggle between the West, led by the superpower USA, and the ever-rising superpower China and the newly strengthening Russia.

Closely linked to this is the economization of space, often referred to as the "new space". The three billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are exemplary of how the race to space has long since become not just a political competition, but above all an economic one. This work initially bore the working title " Billionaire space race" to express the fact that the three billionaires have not only set out to conquer space, but also to catapult themselves into the sphere of trillionaires.

Note on the Objectives of this Book

This book is intended for a general audience interested in the increasingly important topic of space travel. It is not a technical or industry-specific work for scientists or professionals who closely follow developments in this fascinating field of technological progress. Instead, it is designed to be accessible, engaging, and easy to follow for readers without prior knowledge of the industry.

To enhance readability, we have simplified complex concepts where necessary. We appreciate the understanding of experts regarding any omissions or simplifications made in the interest of clarity.

Rather, the aim of this book is to awaken an understanding of the enormous role of space travel in politics, business and, above all, civil society in the near and, of course, even more so in the distant future. The colonization of the Moon and Mars sounds like visions that (still) have little to do with our everyday lives. But the availability of satellite services has already arrived on Earth: Modern smartphones support satellite communication, and in areas that were previously without internet coverage, this now comes from space in good quality and at affordable prices. Added to this is the enormous potential of space travel for research, industry and the economic prosperity of nations. In the long term, this sector may have the same dimensions as electronics, digitalization, the internet, smartphones and artificial intelligence put together. Above all, however, the development of humanity into a multi-planetary species represents progress that opens the door to a new era.

"Man is led by the spirit."

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1948

" Whoever controls space, controls the Earth."

John F. Kennedy, 1960

"I see Earth! It is so beautiful!

Yuri Gagarin, first man in space, 1961

"A small step for one person, but a big step for humanity."

Neil Armstrong, first man on the Moon, 1969

"You see the earth and you see the sky, and you realize that the earth is just a small dot in the universe."

Sigmund Jähn, first German in space, 1978

"Space is limitless, and our dreams should be too. We have taken the first step, and there is much more to achieve."

Liu Yang, first Chinese woman in space, 2012

"Humanity must explore and use space together"

Xi Jinping, Chinese President, 2015

"Dream big. If your dreams don't scare you, they are too small."

Sir Richard Branson, entrepreneur, 2017

"In six years, we will be able to put people on Mars."

Elon Musk, entrepreneur, 2020

"Over centuries, many people will be born in space. It will be their first home. They will be born on these colonies, live on these colonies. Then, they'll visit Earth the way you would visit, you know, Yellowstone National Park"

Jeff Bezos, entrepreneur, 2021

And now it is time for America to reach far greater heights by sending astronauts to Mars!"

Elon Musk, entrepreneur, 2025

"We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars."

Donald Trump, US President, 2025

Contents

Prologue

Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo

From the Big Bang to Infinite Expansion

Outer Space, the Cosmos, the Universe

Man in Space

Space, Infinite Expanses

Man is Led by the Spirit

Thoughts, Films and Books as Role Models

A Trillion Galaxies in the Universe

More and more Telescopes, more and more Findings

Space Travel as a Business Model

USA sets the Course for the Private Sector

The Universe of Trillionaires

New Business Model for Major Projects

A Historic Day: A Rocket Returns

Use of Nuclear Power like the Conquest of Space

Digitalization, Genetics, Health

Geostrategic Balance of Power as a Driver

Trillion-Dollar Space Market: Tourism and more

Rockets Are Not a New Invention

The Flying Chinese

Rocket Pioneer Conrad Haas

Cats and Humans on their Way into Space

Time of the Pioneers

From the Nazis to NASA

The World's First Rocket Company: OTRAG

Rockets, Spaceships, Space Stations

"The Americans weren't even on the Moon"

The Race to Space

The Era of the Space Shuttle

From the Salyut-1 to the Mir

The International Space Station ISS

A President wants to Go to the Moon

Artemis: Powerful, Expensive and Very Slow

The Future is Uncertain

Boeing Fails against SpaceX

The Moon is Not Enough: Reaching for Mars

Dangers from Mars for the Earth

Living in Space

Production in Space

Satellites Around the Globe

From Trucks to Tennis Balls

Sensational Project Starlink

The Kuiper Project: Huge and Silent

The EU tries to Strike Back: IRIS2

China is Ahead of the EU, but Behind Starlink

Damage to the Earth's Environment

Dangerous Space Debris

Asteroids Threaten the Earth

Nuclear Power in Space

Espionage in the Sky

Government Snooping in Space

Jeff Bezos: Into Space with Blue Origin

Away from the Blue Planet and Back

Captain Kirk Flies into Space

Private Space Station Orbital Reef

A New Chapter in the Book of Space Travel

Jeff Bezos' Plans for a Space Station

One Trillion People live in Space

2074: People live in Space Cylinders

Richard Branson: Oldest in Space

The Race for Antarctica and Space

The Virgin Entrepreneur

Branson and Musk Clash for the First Time

Piggybacking into Space on the Back of a Jumbo Jet

Virgin Orbit ends, Virgin Galactic takes a Break

Elon Musk: SpaceX is One Step Ahead

The Billionaires' Race to the Trillion

Serial Entrepreneur Elon Musk

"Going on Vacation will Kill You"

Tesla: One Man Teaches an Industry to Fear

Car with Space Propulsion

A Tesla Flies into Space

Company Goal: Establish a Colony on Mars

Of Falcons and Dragons

SpaceX: From Success to Success

Starship – The New Generation

Milestone for Space Travel: Parking

Ukraine Changes Everything, even for SpaceX

Satellite Killer On the Way

Astronauts, Tourists, Europeans, Chinese and others

Astronauts, Cosmonauts, Taikonauts

Space Tourists: Pioneers and Mass Market

Everyday Life in Space – A New Line of Business

Space Launch: 4.1 Billion Dollars per Launch

Europe's Space Failure

Space Travelers Without a Space Station

A Spirit of Optimism in Europe

Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA)

HyImpulse – German Rocket 47 years after OTRAG

Isar Aerospace: Obazda and Orbit

OHB: From Ship Repair to Space Company

The Dream of a German Spaceport

From Small Satellites to Venus

Laser Power from Space

China is Getting Involved

Heavenly Palace in Space

Moon Goddess meets Jade Rabbit

Race for the South Pole

China's Space Dream is Bigger than the Enterprise

United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Mexico

India, Japan, and many other Countries

Arms Race in Space

The UN Outer Space Treaty

Ronald Reagan's Star Wars

Artemis Accords: The USA regulates Space

The US Space Force

Secret "Space Plane" X-37B

From the "Sceptre of God" to the "Thor" Project

The NATO Alliance also Applies in Space

Life in Space

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos

Galaxy – Spilled Milk

NASA Confirms more than 5,000 Planets

The Sun is only 8.3 Light Minutes away from Us

Nuclear Power in Space

Life on the Moon

The USA Secures the Right in Space

Humanity is Going Multiplanetary: Off to Mars!

There's a Human Touch in Space

Life on Mars

Water for Mars

Basic Features of the Martian Economy

Dying on Mars

Building with Living Materials

Faster than Light

Intelligent Life in Space

From H. G. Wells to Erich von Däniken

Over Two Million Pieces of Evidence for UFOs

Longing for Creatures from Outer Space

From the Universe to the Metaverse

Is the "God Particle" Destroying our Universe?

From Science Fiction into the Future

Space like the Wild West

Our Message for the Next Millennia

About the Authors

Andreas Dripke

Prof. Dr. Heinrich Kreft

Books published by Diplomatic Council

About the Diplomatic Council

References and Notes

Prologue

"Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. ..." This is how the prayer of all prayers begins in Christianity, the largest religious community on earth with 2.26 billion followers, ahead of Islam and Hinduism.1 The Lord's Prayer is an example of how "heaven", as the symbol of humanity, represents the supernatural in the truest sense of the word. Earth is for people, heaven is for God. When we set off into space today, the significance of this goes beyond a technical process. There is always something mystical about the universe. This is shown by the development of world views over the millennia.

The world view (Latin: imago mundi) refers to the idea of tangible reality as a whole; it is a model of the perceptible world. The church drew its believers a very vivid picture of the world, according to which the earth stood immovably at the center of the universe, heaven above, hell below, and on earth, as the ruler of all life, man. This is known as the geocentric world view, with the earth at the center of the world.

Most major religions, including Christianity, believe that a higher power created the universe at a specific point in time. The Bible states in Genesis: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."2

Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo

The Greek mathematician, geographer, astronomer, astrologer and philosopher Claudius Ptolemy (approx. 100 to 160 AD) described this geocentric view of the world in his work Mathe-matices syntaxeos biblia XIII. It was based on the assumption that the earth, and therefore humans, occupy a central position in the universe, so that all celestial bodies (Moon, sun, the other planets and the fixed stars) orbit the earth. The geocentric view of the world corresponds to the immediate visual appearance and was already worked out in detail in classical antiquity in Greece, in particular by Aristotle (384 to 322 BC). It was the prevailing view in Europe for around 1,800 years. A geocentric view of the world was also taught in ancient China and the Islamic world.

It was Nicolaus Copernicus, born in 1473, who revolutionized the world view of the time. In his work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, he wrote that the earth is not at the center of the universe, but moves around the sun. This created the basis for modern astronomy. From the 16th century onwards, the geocentric view of the world with the earth as the center was gradually replaced by the heliocentric view of the world with the sun as the navel of the universe.

The German astronomer Johannes Kepler, born in 1571, consolidated the heliocentric world view advocated by Copernicus, according to which the earth revolves around the sun and itself. Kepler discovered the laws according to which planets move around the sun. They are known as Kepler's laws after him. Among other things, they state that the planets move around the sun in elliptical orbits.3 Kepler is therefore one of the founders of modern science.

The Italian polymath Galileo Galilei, born in Pisa in 1564 and one of the most important founders of modern exact science, insisted on the correctness of the heliocentric view of the world, according to which the sun is at the center of the universe and the home of man is just one of many planets orbiting it. He also became famous because the Catholic Church condemned him for this; it was not until 1992, more than 350 years later, that it rehabilitated him.4 If modern space exploration progressed at the speed of the Catholic Church, not only would Captain James Tiberius Kirk and the entire crew of the U.S. Starship Enterprise (usually called the U.S.S. Enterprise) be condemned, but the series would probably be set in the year 2550 instead of 2200. But given the temporal dimensions we ascribe to the universe, a few centuries more or less don't matter anyway.

From the Big Bang to Infinite Expansion

The Greek philosopher Aristotle held the view that the world has existed forever and could never end. Today, however, the Big Bang theory is the predominant idea.

According to this theory, around 13.8 billion years ago, the then infinitely small and infinitely hot universe exploded within fractions of a second and has been expanding at infinite speed ever since. This theory is based on observations according to which the universe is still expanding today, albeit at an increasingly slower rate. If you trace this expansion back to its origin, you reach the so-called point of origin, where all the energy in the universe must have been concentrated. Physicists describe this moment as a singular state.

Shortly after the Big Bang, the universe was about ten trillion degrees Celsius hot and the first elementary particles were formed and, after continuous cooling to around 2,700 degrees Celsius, the first hydrogen atoms, lithium and helium. After 100 to 200 million years, the first gas clouds formed – stars began to shine. The solar system in which we live was therefore formed around 4.6 billion years ago.5 In 2022, astronomers discovered the most distant single star and gave it the name Earendel; the Old English word means "rising light". According to current scientific knowledge, the "morning star", as it can also be translated, was formed around 900 million years after the Big Bang – less than a fraction of a second after time zero on the scale of the universe.6 The light from this star that hits the Earth today has been traveling for almost 13 billion years – after all, it had previously traveled around 28 billion light years.7 If you imagine that humanity has existed for around 300,000 years, this time span is barely the blink of an eye in comparison.

But if we're being honest, we must admit that the current state of science could just as easily be wrong. Ultimately, no one knows why the universe came into existence, what happened before it began, whether it will ever end, or what will happen afterward.

Outer Space, the Cosmos, the Universe

When we talk about outer space, the cosmos, or the universe today, we mean the totality of space, time, and all the matter and energy within it. This should be distinguished from the observable universe, which refers to the visible arrangement of all matter and energy, ranging from elementary particles to large-scale structures such as galaxies and galaxy clusters. Cosmology, a branch of both physics and contemporary philosophy of science, is concerned with the study of the universe and attempts to answer properties of the universe such as the question of natural constants.

Today's generally accepted theory for describing the large-scale structure of the universe is based on the general theory of relativity in combination with astronomical observations. Quantum physics has also made important contributions to our understanding of the early universe in particular, the time shortly after the Big Bang. The matter in the part of the universe known to us consists of 75 percent hydrogen, 24 percent helium and a tiny fraction of one percent of heavier elements. But both theories and observations suggest that the universe contains large amounts of so-called dark matter. Nobody knows what it truly is. Therefore, it can be said that the vast majority of the universe remains a mystery.8 According to current understanding, we can only see five percent of the universe at best anyway. 95 percent of the universe is considered fundamentally unobservable, detectable only through indirect effects, and remains unexplained by current physics. A deeper understanding of the cosmos will likely only be achieved when physics develops a theory that unifies general relativity and quantum mechanics. This so-called theory of quantum gravity, often referred to as the "theory of everything" or the "world formula," aims to explain the four fundamental forces of nature within a single framework. However, as of the publication of this book, such a theory has yet to be discovered.

As already mentioned, it is reasonably certain that the Big Bang, i.e. the starting point of the creation of matter, space and time, can be dated back to around 13.8 billion years ago.9 Since then, the universe has been expanding – and ever faster. Science assumes that the empty space is filled with dark energy, which accelerates the expansion of the universe. 10 The "Big Bang" stands in contrast to the "Big Rip", the "final bang". However, this is not expected for at least 30 to 50 billion years. Other scientists expect the "Big Freeze" "at some point": As it expands, the universe loses more and more energy until all matter reaches absolute zero of minus 271.15 degrees Celsius. Then the universe would be frozen. Or there is the "Big Crunch": as soon as the force of gravity in the center of space is greater than the acceleration of the matter flying away, everything shrinks back to a point and a new Big Bang starts.11

If you want to get an impression of the unimaginably small dimensions in the world of atoms (and much smaller) on the one hand and the equally unimaginable size of the universe (at least the known part of it) on the other hand, you should take a look at the website https://htwins.net/scale2/. There you can scroll back and forth on a PC screen from 10 to the power of minus 35 (a Planck length) to 10 to the power of 26.9 (i.e. the observable part of the universe). The Planck length, named after the German physicist Max Planck, marks the limit of the contradiction-free applicability of the known laws of physics. Any material object smaller than the Planck length would immediately collapse into a so-called black hole. 12

But there are also plenty of black holes at the other end of the size scale, in the universe. To be more precise, every galaxy in space has its own black hole. They are called this because their gravitational pull is so immense that nothing – not even light – can escape. The largest known black hole in space (quasar) is estimated to be 66 to 70 billion times heavier than our sun. In Hollywood films, series such as Deep Space 9 and science fiction novels, there have long been connections between two black holes, known as wormholes.

In Einstein's theory of general relativity, there are mathematical solutions under which such "space-time tunnels", as the wormholes are "officially" called, exist. Two black holes would be connected by an area in which space-time is extremely curved, but you could – theoretically – actually travel through it. Unlike a single black hole, entering a wormhole does not necessarily mean the end of existence.13 You don't have to be a physicist or astronomer to intuitively understand that our world, from the smallest to the largest dimensions, is a closed book for us humans. It is therefore all the more remarkable and courageous if we dare to take a small step in one direction or the other – into particle physics with its unimaginable smallness and into space with its immense size.

Man in Space

What was once a science fiction fantasy – the idea that humanity could conquer space – is now within our reach.

Human spaceflight has developed in three phases over the past few decades. The Apollo Moon program led to the first humans landing on the Moon in 1969 (there were five more Moon landings until 1972). It was a triumph for mankind.

This was followed by a 40-year period of stagnation. Although there were numerous research flights by unmanned probes, no further progress was made in the field of manned space travel and space transportation. The Space Shuttle program, conceived as the successor to Apollo, was an economic disaster – each individual mission cost a billion dollars. Operations were so expensive that all attempts at a more sensible successor flight system failed to materialize for more than three decades.

The third phase began with companies such as Elon Musk's SpaceX, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Company and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin space companies. Only these companies make plans for a manned landing on Mars seem realistic – not just due to advanced technology, but even more so because they have dramatically reduced costs. Space travel is no longer just in the hands of state actors, but is developing into a gigantic business sector. It is no longer "just" about billions, but about trillions – and the development of mankind into a multi-planetary species.

Space, Infinite Expanses

"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."14

Every episode of one of the most legendary television series of all time began with these words. Star Trek is set in the 23rd century, at a time when humanity has emerged from the Third World War and has united in peaceful coexistence with other extraterrestrial life forms to form the United Federation of Planets.

Its research and military division, Starfleet, is tasked with exploring foreign planets and galaxies, carrying out diplomatic missions and discovering unknown life forms. It sends the U.S.S. Enterprise under the leadership of Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner) with a crew of 430 men and women on a five-year journey into space. Together with his closest crew members, the Vulcan and first and scientific officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), ship's doctor Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelly), chief engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (James Doohan), helmsman Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), communications officer Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and navigator Pavel Andreievich Chekov (Walter Koenig), he experiences the most fantastic and curious adventures.

The series first appeared on television in the USA in 1965. It was a mixture of science fiction and fairytale adventure that thrilled millions of people. Some 60 years later, it remains to be seen: It is still science fiction, and it seems rather childish from today's perspective, but we are beginning to suspect that this vision of the future will indeed turn into reality at some point.

This realization is reinforced by the fact that much of what once began as science fiction has long since become an integral part of our daily lives.

Man is Led by the Spirit

"Man is led by the spirit," wrote Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in his letter to a prisoner. Everything that is conceivable today also has a chance of becoming reality. In fact, the future is anticipated in many books and films. As early as 1865, French author Jules Verne sent the first men to the Moon in his novel Dela Terre à la Lune (English title From the Earth to the Moon) more than 100 years before the first man actually set foot on the Moon on July 21, 1969 – with a rocket that had less computing power than a modern smartphone.

The idea of a "pocket telephone" was born in the anthology The World in 100 Years, published in 1910. The collection of visionary essays by writers, journalists, politicians, scientists and artists on the world we would live in a century later stated that "the citizens of this age will go about everywhere with their wireless receivers, which will be placed somewhere, in their hats or elsewhere". People first became aware of cell phones when Star Trek was broadcast in 1965. Captain Kirk, Spock and Bones regularly used the communicator to communicate with the U.S.S. Enterprise. When developing the revolutionary StarTAC phone (note the Star Trek-inspired product name), which was launched on January 3, 1996, Motorola placed great emphasis on the weight distribution between the top and bottom of the world's first flip phone so that anyone could flip it open with the same graceful and elegant gesture as Captain Kirk did with the Communicator. The idea of a virtual world, as it can be experienced today with virtual reality goggles, already appeared in Ray Bradbury's story The Veldt in the 1950s. However, the most famous depiction of virtual reality is probably the holodecks from Star Trek: The Next Generation. And if today's 3D printers remind you of the "replicator" from the same series, make no mistake: we are still waiting for the device that prints out our food.

Thoughts, Films and Books as Role Models

Video telephony was shown on the big screen as early as 1927 in Fritz Lang's masterpiece Metropolis. A jetpack, which you strap onto your back like a backpack to enable flight, was first featured on the cover of Amazing Stories magazine in 1928, later appeared in James Bond films, and can now be purchased for around $100,000. The term robot was not popularized by scientists or economists, but by a science fiction author: Isaac Asimov. He first used the word in his short story Runaround, which was published in March 1942. He called the teaching or science of it "robotics". Tablets could already be seen in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, 42 years before Steve Jobs presented the first iPad on April 3, 2010. And perhaps the most famous self-driving car was KITT from the 1980s TV series Knight Rider starring David Hasselhoff.

Many inventions are conceived long before they actually come to fruition. In the case of the hoverboard, a kind of floating skateboard, it is probably fair to assume that it was only invented in the first place because it was featured in the 1989 movie Back to the Future II. Otherwise, it is unlikely that anyone would have come up with the idea of developing a hoverboard.

Thoughts about the consequences of technical innovations have also often been anticipated in books and films. In his short story Minority Report around 60 years ago, Philip K. Dick depicted a world in which crime could be accurately predicted. In 2002, the short story was made into a film starring Tom Cruise. Today, predictive policing is beginning to become an integral part of police work. The multi-award-winning 1999 feature film Matrix took the idea of a completely virtual world all the way to the end. The film's hero Neo had to learn that the world he thought he was living in is just a simulation and that he was merely a captive slave in this computer-generated dream world, the "Matrix".

What does all of this have to do with our time, our future, and our topic? A great deal, because it offers valuable insights. Anything that can be imagined will, at some point, become achievable. Circumstances and designs often change compared to the original idea. But there are many indications that one day a "U.S.S. Enterprise" will indeed fly through the galaxy. Whether this will be from around the year 2265, as outlined in Star Trek, remains uncertain – possibly much earlier. And the "infinite expanses" traversed by the cinematic spaceship U.S.S. Enterprise are no further than the path to the bakery around the corner compared to the true dimensions of space, as the following comparison shows.

A Trillion Galaxies in the Universe

Seen from the sun, our planet Earth is the third in the solar system. A small blue pearl, surrounded by a cloud of space debris and a relatively large Moon for the mass of the planet.

The solar system, in turn, is located on the edge of a barred spiral galaxy that we call the Milky Way. At its greatest extent, the Milky Way is 180,000 light years wide. This is the equivalent of around 55,000 parsecs; one parallax second (parsec) corresponds to 3.26 light years or around 30.9 trillion kilometers.15 According to estimates, there are around one trillion galaxies like "our" Milky Way – at least in the part of the universe that today's science classifies as "observable".16 The "Milky Way in which we live" is located in a group of galaxies that is a hundred times larger with an expansion of ten million light years, but still small compared to the ten times larger Virgo galaxy cluster, which is located in the five times larger Laniakea supercluster. The Laniakea megastructure was only identified in 2014, when the speed measurement of galaxies revealed that the Milky Way, together with around 100,000 other galaxies, was moving faster and faster towards a point that apparently represents the center of a mass accumulation (technical jargon: "Basins of Attraction", BoA). In 2024, scientists used computer simulations to find evidence that the Laniakea megastructure is part of another much larger giga structure called the Shapley BoA.17 In 2024, these discoveries called into question for the first time a basic assumption of astronomy, the so-called cosmological principle, namely the roughly hundred-year-old assumption that the universe is approximately uniform (homogeneous and isotropic) everywhere when viewed from a great distance (from 100 parsecs). This is linked to the assumption that the same physical laws apply everywhere. Since 2024, these supposed foundations of astrophysics have been shaking.18 Instead, there appears to be a kind of preferred direction in the cosmic background radiation in the universe, which is also referred to as the "axis of evil" because the phenomenon persists across different measurements.19

In view of these orders of magnitude, it is clear that, when Captain Kirk "ventures into galaxies that no man has ever seen before", he never even leaves the Milky Way and is in fact always in the immediate vicinity of Earth. In 2021, researchers observed for the first time how a galaxy nine billion light years away began to "die". Why galaxies can no longer produce new suns at some point and are therefore doomed to "die" is unknown. 20 Incidentally, the oldest and most distant galaxy was only discovered in 2022. The galaxy known as HD1 is believed to have formed just over 300 million years after the Big Bang. Despite its age, HD1 is extremely lively: Around 100 new stars are formed there every year. The mass of HD1 is estimated to be around ten billion times larger than our sun.21 Before 2022, GN-z11, which is around 100 million years younger, was considered the oldest known galaxy. It was formed at a time when the universe was only around three percent of its current age.22

More and more Telescopes, more and more Findings

The rediscovery of galaxies that are unimaginably old and distant for us humans is a direct consequence of the ever-increasing number of telescopes that scientists are using to observe space. Space telescopes in space are the key to this. NASA operates four of them as part of its Great Observatory Program: Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The first serious concept of a scientific telescope in Earth orbit was presented by Lyman Spitzer in 1946. This was intended to make it possible to bypass the limitations of the Earth's atmosphere and provide better images of space. In 1990, the first space telescope was launched into space, named after Erwin Hubble, the discoverer of the expansion of the universe, the Hubble Telescope.23 With its help, it was possible to confirm earlier assumptions that the universe is expanding. The Hubble constant indicates how fast the universe is expanding. More recently, however, the increasingly precise measurement of the Hubble constant has led to a problem: different experiments have produced different values. However, if this "constant" – ostensibly a fixed value – proves to fluctuate, it would strongly suggest that the cosmological principle, which posits the universal validity of "our" physical laws, rests on precarious foundations. For some time now, people in the industry have been talking about the "Hubble tension" – the discrepancy between what would be expected on the basis of the discovered laws and what is actually observed. 24 Astrophysics may soon have to be revised in the light of new findings – thanks in part to increasingly precise observations by new space telescopes.

The Gamma Ray Observatory was added in 1991, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory in 1999, the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2003 and the James Webb Space Telescope in 2022.25 With more than 35 years in space, the Hubble telescope is now getting on in years and has more frequent faults. NASA presented the Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared Surveyor space telescope (LUVOIR for short) as a possible successor. This was to be a general-purpose observatory which, unlike the other telescopes, would be able to observe several wavelengths including infrared, optical and ultraviolet rays. However, even if funding is secured, LUVOIR could not be launched until 2039 at the earliest.26 For the time being, the project is failing anyway because of the money: NASA is initially planning a smaller and cheaper exoplanet telescope that will combine elements of LUVOIR and a slightly different telescope concept called the Habitable Exoplanet Imager (HabEx); the costs are estimated at just eleven billion dollars compared to LUVOIR and up to 16 billion dollars.27 China is planning to launch a space telescope called Xuntian as early as 2026.28 It will be able to observe an area 300 times larger than that of Hubble.29

For the foreseeable future, space telescopes will primarily be used for scientific purposes. In the long term, commercial use cannot be ruled out. Space travel has long since progressed along this path from science to industry, as the next chapter shows.

Space Travel as a Business Model

Whereas in the last century, space travel was considered the domain of states, it is foreseeable that in the 21st century, space will be largely conquered by the private sector.

This fundamental change was made possible by US President Ronald Reagan. He recognized the enormous potential of the "Space Age" and declared in early 1984 in a legendary speech full of national pride: "Nowhere do we [the United States of America] so effectively demonstrate our technological leadership and our ability to improve life on Earth. The space age is barely a quarter of a century old, but we have already advanced civilization through our advances in science and technology. Opportunities and jobs will multiply as we cross new frontiers of knowledge and venture deeper into the unknown. Our progress in space, giant steps for all mankind, is a tribute to American teamwork and excellence. Our best minds in government, industry and academia have worked together. And we can proudly say that we are the first, the best, and that's because we are free.... The third goal of our space strategy is to encourage American industry to move quickly and decisively into space. Barriers to private sector space activity will be removed, and we will take appropriate steps to encourage private enterprise in space. We expect investment in space to grow rapidly in the coming years, creating many new jobs and greater prosperity for all Americans. For example, companies that want to launch payloads into space should have easy access to private sector launch services.... So we're going to put America's greatest asset into play: the vitality of our free enterprise system.30

USA sets the Course for the Private Sector

A few months later, Reagan signed the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984, which made it possible for private companies to commercialize space travel and space technology. 3132

In the same speech in 1984, he instructed NASA to establish a permanently manned International Space Station in space within a decade. It only took a few years longer: in 1998, 14 years after the speech, the International Space Station (ISS) was sent into space as mankind's largest outpost to date.33

US President Barack Obama also made a significant contribution to the transition of space travel to the private sector, albeit completely unintentionally. Obama, who wanted to use government funds for social purposes and had no interest in the "space age", was happy when he was able to leave space travel to the private sector instead of having to take care of it himself. In 2015, he signed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act34 , paving the way for the trillion-dollar space market. Among other things, the Act allowed US companies to commercially exploit space resources such as minerals. However, it was clearly stated that this did not mean that the US was claiming sovereignty or ownership over celestial bodies. It extended the indemnification of US rocket companies for catastrophic losses in the event of a failed launch until the fall of 2025. At the same time, the law extended the "learning curve" for the regulation of safety in space until 2023. During this time, the responsible authority, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), only had very limited influence on safety measures for space missions.35 Since then, the FAA has regained full authority over safety regulations for commercial space travel. And so the "Space Race" is an excellent example of how well a development can progress when the state merely creates the legal basis and otherwise stays out of the matter, at least temporarily.

More than 20 years after Reagan's speech and four years after Obama opened up to entrepreneurial competition in the "race for space", well-known billionaire companies such as Virgin Galactic (Richard Branson), Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos) and SpaceX (Elon Musk) have been on the road to commercializing space since the early 2020s. They are vying for the future trillion-dollar business of traveling into space and possibly, at some point, colonizing alien celestial bodies.36

The Universe of Trillionaires

It can be assumed that these civilian efforts are also about catapulting the founders from the ranks of billionaires to the future ranks of trillionaires. But it is just as likely that the knowledge and progress gained in the process will benefit future humanity to a large extent. An alliance between the state and the private sector in the use of space is unmistakable. As early as 1997, more commercial than government-commissioned rockets lifted off from US space launch sites. 37

A good example of the new "space generation" is SpaceX's Crew Dragon. In June 2020, the manned spacecraft used a Falcon 9 rocket to transport two astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on behalf of NASA. SpaceX's first regular astronaut launch took place in November 2020. The November crew – Crew-1 – was the first to be officially flown to the ISS by Crew Dragon after the successful manned test in spring 2020.38 It marked the beginning of a long series of many more planned commercial space flights in the 2020s.

New Business Model for Major Projects

It is easy to speak of a new business model for large-scale projects, which "in the old days" were all financed and implemented by the state, but have been in the process of being taken over by the private sector for some time now. Space travel is the model case, the role model, led by the jack-of-all-trades entrepreneur (and political influencer) Elon Musk and his company SpaceX. This business model works as explained below. One or even several extremely financially strong entrepreneurs develop a large-scale industrial technology until it is ready for series production. The state is eager to support this development for several reasons: first, it stands to benefit from it itself; second, it doesn’t have to bear the entire financial burden; third, it avoids political accountability to citizens and taxpayers; fourth, it recognizes that companies can produce practical results more quickly than official research institutions; and fifth, it knows that it will have access to the outcomes in the future, either directly or through appropriate legislation.