The Space Race: Not a Sprint, But a Marathon

Outer space—the epitome of human curiosity— has been wondered about for millennia, from the ancient Mesopotamians to Aristotle and Ptolemy, to Copernicus and Galileo. It was an unreachable dream for them, and now we are going above and beyond these dreams. We stepped foot on the moon, put rovers on mars, and even traveled past Pluto, outside our solar system. Yet, albeit the momentous distances we have traveled, we still trample each other over who gets to feed this "curiosity" first.

This so-called "Space Race" is actual and has been around since the mid-20th century, during the Cold War. The United States, Russia, and China—known as the Big 3—have been competing for who can pioneer the space exploration industry. "We put a man in space first," and "We set foot on another planet first" that we have hindered our collective advancements by trying to fulfill our individual wants. This egotism could plateau our progress, rendering all our efforts in reaching the unreachable useless.

In their efforts to "win" this space race, many aeronautical organizations have hastened their projects and sent missions way too early. Especially in its early stages, overlooking any minute detail could lead to unprecedented outcomes, which was, unfortunately, the case for many space missions. These outcomes ranged from minor casualties to catastrophic fatalities, tarnishing aeronautics' reputation and crushing many's visions for space travel.

For instance, one of the first space missions to send a man into space—the 1967 Soyuz 1—was supposed to set the Soviet Union as the domineer in human-crewed space missions. Unfortunately, due to the Soviet Union's neck-in-neck competition with the United States Friendship 7 space mission, the Soviet Space Program hastened its procedures and tried to launch the task as fast as possible. Unaware of the consequences, they launched astronaut Vladimir Komarov into orbit. After a series of tribulations—from the left solar panel malfunctioning to the reentry parachute failing—Soyuz recorded the first fatality in spaceflight.

Another disaster caused by the contest between the Big 3 was the United States' Challenger space shuttle, which was even more catastrophic than any failure seen before at that time. In 1986, the United States wanted to send the Challenger space shuttle carrying seven astronauts and a second relay satellite, wanting to be the first of the Big 3 to observe Halley's comet passing close to the earth. However, a fire started and destabilized the rocket due to their computers' miscalculations that went unverified and unexpected weather conditions that day. The rocket eventually broke apart, taking the lives of all seven astronauts on board.

Some might argue that this competition for the "pioneer" in space travel may give more drive and motivation to strive higher and do better. While this partly holds, the current space race is unhealthy and provides a way for egotistical beliefs. Instead, space organizations can and should collaborate to launch more prominent and successful space missions to go beyond and discover new parts of our space. Exploration aside, we have consistently achieved more united together rather than independently, and this holds for most of human history.

All things considered, what we have advanced in space travel is a momentous feat, taking us to lengths we did not know was possible. However, to keep our progress rising and protect it from plateauing or falling behind, we must work together to develop our shared future. This "space race" is not a sprint for who's first. It's a marathon we all finish together to reach the future.