Opinion
by Dale Skran,
NSS Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President

Recently two videos appeared on Youtube that are well worth the time of NSS members to watch. The videos are “The State of Space” by Sir Peter Beck of Rocket Lab, and “New Space” from Frontier Film. Both are excellent, and “New Space” offers slick, professional editing and music.

The State of Space

The shorter of the two films at 26 minutes, this is a recording of a talk by Beck, the CEO of Rocket Lab, at the 2025 SmallSat Symposium held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. It’s definitely not for the average person, but most NSS members should have no trouble keeping up. I found it fascinating. I am pretty sure Beck is not always spot on, but he is a key leader in moving humanity into space, and even his mistakes are worth pondering.

I wish to point out that in recommending this video it does not mean that I, or the NSS, endorses Rocket Lab over other companies. The NSS has a long-standing policy of avoiding company and product endorsements.  Just because I suggest you would be well advised to watch this film, or that the NSS invites a representative of Rocket Lab to speak at the ISDC or the Space Settlement Summit (which it has on multiple occasions), does not mean that either are endorsing Rocket Lab over other companies. The NSS seeks to foster a competitive space industry at every level with multiple successful players, and although Rocket Lab is a key part of accomplishing that goal, the NSS looks forward to the future success of SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space, and other companies yet to be founded.

So go watch Beck’s talk before it is superseded by events. He really has some very interesting points to make.

New Space

This documentary, an hour and 15 minutes long, features a large number of major space figures.  The film advocates for a number of ideas widely but not universally held by NSS members. Some of these ideas, like the desirability of developing space resources, or the important of settling space, will likely be agreeable to NSS members.

However, some segments are sufficiently favorable toward Elon Musk that he looms as the star of the show. This raises a number of questions when I recommend that NSS members watch this video. Am I endorsing Elon Musk’s company or products? Am I endorsing Elon Musk’s politics? Is the NSS being fair by providing a relatively large amount of favorable coverage of SpaceX and their achievements? These are questions that deserve good answers.

First, although the NSS works hard to congratulate all significant, substantial achievements relating to space development and settlement, it remains a fact that over the last five years, the great majority of these events have involved SpaceX. Because of the rapidly growing dominance of both the launch market and the satellite market by SpaceX, objective coverage of space events easily takes on a tone of endless praise for SpaceX, Elon Musk, and Gwen Shotwell. Neither I nor the NSS is trying to endorse SpaceX or Elon Musk, but sometimes it can seem like that is what is happening. In striving to be totally fair in our coverage of space events, we certainly cannot ignore great achievements by SpaceX. Some “journalists” approach this problem by adding a negative section on SpaceX after every positive achievement by SpaceX. Sometimes this is merited, but often the “negative” news is contrived and overblown. I would ask for the reader, as a well-informed member of the space interested public, to understand what is happening and how easily the appearance of bias toward SpaceX can be created.

Second, some might take from my recommendation of the “New Space” documentary, or from NSS’s favorable coverage of Elon Musk, including giving him awards at past ISDCs, that this is an endorsement of Musk’s politics. The NSS is and will remain staunchly non-partisan. As a non-profit supporting space, we need to be scrupulous in avoiding partisan bias. But this means that when Republicans are in power, we are going to be working with Republicans, just as when the Democrats were in power, we worked with Democrats. Perhaps more challenging, the NSS will support whatever positions we believe will bring about our vision and mission. Sometimes this leads to the NSS supporting a bi-partisan position. But sometimes it means standing with one side or the other. And when that happens, the opposite side starts to think the NSS is no longer non-partisan. NSS members should know that we are just being tactical – the NSS does not take a political side on any non-space issue.

Third, it has to be recognized that we are living in an unusual time. The richest man in the world – Elon Musk – is possibly the single person on the Earth the most committed to moving humanity into space. And many NSS members were quite comfortable with this situation. However, relatively recently Musk, a former registered Independent who contributed to both parties, has decided to become directly and personally involved in politics on the Republican side. He appears to be applying his vast fortune and full energy to helping the Republicans achieve their goals. Inevitably, Musk’s star has fallen with those, including some NSS members, who don’t like his politics. However, the NSS has to take the long view. If Musk and the Republicans end up doing good things in space – which is not clear at this point – the NSS must stand by our principles and support those good things. About half of NSS members are Republicans and about half are Democrats. Our common vision and mission to create a better future in space for all of humanity holds us together. But supporting good things Musk does in space does not mean the NSS is endorsing his politics or his methods, any more than when the NSS was consistently supporting Barak Obama’s space policies that meant we endorsed Obama’s politics or methods.

So please watch “New Space” – there is a lot of good stuff in it, and at its best it is inspiring, if a bit overlong. But also, please keep the points above clearly in mind.

© 2025 Dale Skran