This week, Northrop Grumman’s nineteenth commercial resupply services mission for NASA blasted off from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It was the end of an era.
The first stage of the Antares rocket used in the mission had Russian-made engines and Ukrainian-made propellant tanks and plumbing. Russian and Ukrainian engineers had, essentially, joined together to boost the Antares out of the Earth’s lower atmosphere before the second stage, made by Northrop Grumman, took over for the Cygnus capsule carrying cargo for the International Space Station.
Ukrainian personnel were present at Wallops and Russians had apparently participated remotely.
Due to Russia’s war against Ukraine, the commercial venture that sent Antares on its way has come to an end.
It’s hard to not be sad, even bewildered, in a moment like this. I’m one of those people who fully believes that as human beings, we reach into the better parts of our souls — our intelligence, if you don’t believe in souls like I do — when we’re aiming to explore the sky. When war and genocidal hatred get in the way of that brave impulse, that’s awful. That sucks. What the hell?
Russian and Ukrainian engineers had, essentially, joined together to boost the Antares out of the Earth’s lower atmosphere
Of course, this isn’t a “stop the war” moment, nor should it be. When you choose to be “impartial” or “above the fray” during a war of aggression, you’re siding with the aggressor. The war can only be stopped with Russia’s defeat — only then can Russia potentially choose to pick up the pieces (and to be honest, I am not optimistic on that front).
The funny thing is, I used to communicate with a number of Russian rocket scientists and engineers before it became too dangerous for these people to talk to people like me. I hope they remain at least somewhat decent people today, as decent as they can be while living under a fascist government. Yet I have no wish to romanticize poor, oppressed Russians. At the end of the day, there is a collective responsibility that hangs over Russian society, clinging to these people like dirt.
I also know that plenty of people in that community have been arrested on sketchy treason charges in recent years. The mindless bludgeon of despotism is always bad for innovation and progress. For generations, many Russian scientists have been successful in spite of — and not because of — their awful governments, even though droves of Russians will try to argue that this isn’t the case, if only because they refuse to see the situation from a different angle, as that would be too painful.
I have hope that in some distant future, a future I will not live to see, human beings will explore the universe without pausing to wage war against each other
This bizarre Russian impulse to glorify their own oppression, to say, “But look what we achieved even if our leaders have always sucked! Clearly, terrible leaders are good for us!” is a stupid coping mechanism, at the end of the day. All it does is help grease the wheels of the squeaking but perfectly functional Russian oppression machine.
I have hope that in some distant future, a future I will not live to see, human beings will explore the universe without pausing to wage war against each other. I think we could evolve to that stage; I don’t think it’s impossible. We’d really have to try, though. We’d have to balance looking skyward with looking inward.
For now, I have to face the fact that as my son and I were streaming the Antares launch — and trying to see the rocket from our roof in the DC area (a neighboring building blocked it, oops!) — I was simultaneously on the phone with my cousin, sleepless in Kyiv, as Shahed drones operated by Russia had been relentlessly attacking the ancient and beautiful city of my birth.
There it was: hope and horror all rolled into one.
Image: NASA Goddard Photo and Video
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