Spacefaring is obviously based on “seafaring” which, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is defined as:  “the use of the sea for travel or transportation.”  Thus, a simple definition for “spacefaring” would be:  “the use of space for travel or transportation.”

The term “spacefaring nation” appears, however, to imply much more.  The Aerospace Commission linked this national capability to “our freedom, mobility, and quality of life.”  Simple travel and transportation capabilities appear to be insufficient for ensuring our freedom and quality of life.  Robert Zubrin, in Entering Space:  Creating a Spacefaring Civilization, defines a “spacefaring civilization” as one that has moved from “full mastery of all of its planet’s resources” to “one that has mastered its solar system.”  Again, simple travel and transportation does not appear to be sufficient to gain full mastery of the resources of the solar system for the benefit of the human civilization.

Importance of Spacefaring Mastery

The key to understanding the implicit definition of America as a spacefaring nation comes from the use of the term “mastery.”  In 2001, the Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization (referred to as the Space Commission) noted:

The first era of the space age was one of experimentation and discovery. Telstar, Mercury and Apollo, Voyager and Hubble, and the Space Shuttle taught Americans how to journey into space and allows them to take the first tentative steps toward operating in space while enlarging their knowledge of the universe.  We are now on the threshold of a new era of the space age, devoted to mastering operations in space. [emphasis added]

A spacefaring nation, thus, is one that has achieved spacefaring mastery—sufficient technical and operational experience, skills, and capabilities to enable a full range of exploration, commercial, and national security space operations to be undertaken with acceptable safety and a high degree of confidence of achieving the desired operational outcome.

Achieving Spacefaring Mastery

A useful benchmark for measuring the degree of current and desired spacefaring mastery is to compare America’s space technical and operational capabilities to its aeronautical mastery.  Clearly, in such a comparison, America’s spacefaring capabilities fall considerably short, and, perhaps more importantly, do not appear to be catching up.  Therefore, the key question is:  What must America do to achieve a degree of mastery in space and meet its spacefaring obligations for the 21st century?

History illustrates that America’s mastery of operations in new physical frontiers—land, sea, air, and communications—in large measure results from building logistics infrastructure such as canals, railroads, bridges, dams, highways, energy production and distribution, etc.  These logistics projects generate public interest, create political importance, establish demand for new and expanded manufacturing and services, and require the solution to new scientific and technological challenges of importance to the nation.  This attracts America’s best and brightest, yielding the knowledge, experience, and capabilities that constitute mastery.  Hence, with history as a guide, the best approach for America to achieve mastery of space operations is to build a robust space logistics infrastructure that enables routine and confident access to and operations in this new frontier.  Such an important next step is crucial to beginning our transformation into spacefaring civilization.