Space Race as a phenomenon was first seen during the height of the Cold War. When the erstwhile Soviet Union sent the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 to outer space successfully, it marked the start of a race to conquer outer space. The US decided to establish its own supremacy over the space arena as this was thought to be the ‘final frontier’ which both US and USSR wanted to dominate.

So, the US Congress passed a legislation to come up with a civilian space agency which would cater to America’s need to respond to USSR’s space capabilities, which had then become the best in the world, especially after the successful launch of Sputnik on October 4,1957.

For the next decade both these superpowers decided to outmatch each other in enhancing their space capabilities and trying to become the first nation to send a man to the moon, a feat, which was first achieved by the US when Neil Armstrong landed on moon. However, one shouldn’t forget that it was the Soviet Union earlier that had marked its dominance when Yuri Gagarin became the first person to go to outer space.

In a nutshell, this ‘race’ had turned to a ‘rivalry’ between two evenly matched superpowers. However the end of Cold War with the dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991 ended the space race as well and the space rivalry was also dead. The US since then has been the dominant unipolar force in the international affairs and by extension outer space as well.

In these three decades a lot of things have changed — from technical advancements to the character of great powers in international affairs, the meteoric rise of China in international relations as well as outer space to the coming of age of multi-billionaires investing in space related activities, like Space X and Tesla. So, the nature and character of the race to conquer outer space has changed significantly, if not fundamentally.

Firstly, the qualitative difference between the Cold War space race and today is that the bipolar rivalry has become a thing of an era bygone. However, with China’s entry in Outer Space does have a potential to kick start a race with the US, but given the place where China is right now in terms of its space capabilities, it would take few decades of exponential rise of space sector, simultaneously matched by a dip in ‘outer space’ efforts by US for a space race to happen.

But unlike earlier where only nations were participants in the race, today it’s the private players who are seemingly becoming the bigger participants in outer space. The one reason why private players could become the most dominant players in decades to come is that a private entity can focus much more on one area with a microscopic focus to increase its profits, unlike nations which have a lot of other responsibilities to manage, out of which outer space is one key sector.

This holds true mostly for advanced economies which possess the wherewithal to spend in outer space. Middle and lower income economies don’t possess either the willingness or capability to spend in outer space. Simply put, outer space is an ultra-expensive business.

So, in an era where private players and big industries are taking special interest in outer space, it becomes a logical explanation that they would be the one’s who would be the front runners in space exploration, space mining, looking for minerals and any other object or source that can ease the lives of people.

The writer is Doctoral Fellow, School of International Studies, JNU

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