Economic Crisis Poses Challenge for Space Industry, Article Writing Example

I selected this article because it deals with the future of space exploration, and how it will get its funding. Also, I thought it interesting to get a perspective that is almost three years old. I wondered how relevant it would be.

I concluded that little seems to have changed since April, 2009. The article mentions how capital-intensive the space industry is, but that government and private industry will still “have to continue to invest in space-related research and development.” And “Private investment will be critical to the development of new space-programs and technologies in the coming years.” The projected growth of profitable suborbital space flight and the loosening of regulations to foster it is mentioned favorably, with the proviso that deregulation can go too far. Then I noticed that not a dollar-sign can be found in the article, nor the word “exploration”. Keith Hall, an administrator, states “There is never enough money to do all the things that you want to do. So get over it.” That seemed to summarize a practical new attitude toward space. I kept reading.

At the bottom of the article is a link to a directly related subject, published two months earlier. It’s specifically about NASA’s proposed funding bill for 2010. In it, eight dollar-signs can be found, each attached to the word billion, for a total of $18.7 billion (later increased to $19 billion). Many of those billions is projected to be spent on the final flights of the Space Shuttles, and the International Space Station with its planned Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. The word “exploration” is found four times.

My impression after reading these articles is that nothing has really changed since 2009, or ever will. Lesson: deep space belongs to those with the deepest pockets.