February 12, 2018
With China, Russia looming, SpaceX launch is about more than Mars
SpaceX has reached another milestone with the successful launch of Falcon Heavy. The launch is another example of the organization’s persistent ability to innovate and push market expansion.
In the short term, the launch probably won’t add to SpaceX’s bottom lineall that much, there just isn’t enough heavy lift demand. So why is the launch such a big deal? The importance of Tuesday’s maiden Falcon Heavy flight is less about the immediate financial return for SpaceX and more about what it signifies vis-à-vis America’s interest in space and the country’s ability to leverage the free market system to develop the burgeoning space domain ahead of our peers.
Maintaining America’s advantage in space has both economic and national security implications.
Read the full article in The Hill.
More from CNAS
-
Defense & Aerospace Air Power Podcast [Jun 26, 25] Season 3 E25: Focus Forward
Just when people were saying the future of air power was small, distributed systems like UAVs, the US struck Iran’s nuclear program infrastructure with an old-fashioned manned...
By Stacie Pettyjohn
-
Defense / Energy, Economics & Security
Tariffs & and the Defense Industrial Base with Becca Wasser, plus what’s new in the U.S.-China trade warGeoff and Emily debrief on the latest news in the U.S.-China trade talks. Becca Wasser, senior fellow and deputy director of the CNAS defense program, joins to talk about what...
By Emily Kilcrease, Geoffrey Gertz & Becca Wasser
-
Production Power: The Revitalisation of the U.S. Defence Industrial Base and the Consequences for Europe
In episode 15 of Strategy Speaks, Becca Wasser from CNAS speaks with Daniel Fiott about the US defence industrial base and how its revitalisation could affect Europe. The conv...
By Becca Wasser
-
MWI Podcast: The U.S. Defense Industrial Base, from Steel to Software
Mobilizing the U.S. defense industrial base. for a future large-scale conflict, however, will look very different than it has in the past. In the information age, data and sof...
By Becca Wasser