Keeping space for everyone

Image: NASA

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 into orbit. The beach-ball-sized satellite was the first human-made object in space, marking the beginning of the Space Age that would define the 1960s. It also marked the start of the arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States. Fearing the militarization of space, the United Nations drafted the Outer Space Treaty, signed on October 10, 1967, which established that space should be freely explored and used by all nations. These events laid the foundation for the 1999 United Nations General Assembly declaration of October 4-10 as World Space Week, a global “celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition.”

In 2025, we find ourselves two steps back from the Space Age. The United States, once the dominant spacefaring nation, is about to lose its race back to the Moon to China, with Russia as its partner. Our country now faces a “brain drain” as top scientists and graduates leave for opportunities abroad, their federal research grants eliminated and their institutions mired in oversight. Scientific intellectualism, once a source of pride and celebration, is now under attack.

Research and innovation remain our nation’s greatest tools. When asked why we should invest in science, I give a simple answer: the MRI. This machine, which revolutionized the early detection of diseases like cancer, was born from physicists studying nuclear magnetic resonance, work that once seemed obscure. The same is true for astronomy and physics. We are better economically, medically, academically, and socially because of science.

As we celebrate World Space Week, I hope we can again recognize the value of science, as we did in 1957 and 1967, and commit to keeping space as something that can be for everyone.