Much of the information henceforth is drawn from the NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. See “Edited Oral History Transcript – William R. Pogue,” interview by Kevin M. Rusnak in Houston, Texas on July 17, 2000; “Edited Oral History Transcript – Gerald P. Carr,” interview by Kevin M. Rusnak in Huntsville, Arkansas, USA on October 25, 2000; and “Edited Oral History Transcript – Edward P. Gibson,” interview by Carol Butler on December 1, 2000. All are available from NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, ➝.
“Astronauts try to make up time,” New York Times, November 19, 1973; and “Skylab crew takes day off for rest,” New York Times, November 25, 1973.
David Hitt, Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008) and John Uri, “The Real Story of the Skylab 4 ‘Strike’ in Space,” NASA, November 16, 2020, ➝.
W. David Compton and Charles D. Benson, Living and Working in Space: A History of Skylab, NASA History Series (Washington, DC: NASA Scientific and Technical Information Lab, 1983), 322, ➝.
Kenneth Chang, “How NASA’s astronauts became Space X’s customers,” New York Times, May 26, 2020; see also Christian Davenport, The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos (New York City: Public Affairs, 2018).
Francisco Doménech, “Trump puts NASA on pause as Musk’s DOGE prepares to slash costs,” El País English, February 21, 2025.
Eleanor Pringle, “The person ruling on Elon Musk’s DOGE conflicts of interest is…Elon Musk,” Fortune, February 6, 2025.
Kenneth Chang, “’Moon Dust on Our Boots’: Texas Company’s Blue Ghost Lands on Lunar Surface,” New York Times, March 1, 2025.
NASA, “NASA Selects Astronauts for First U.S. Commercial Spaceflights,” Press release 15-148, July 9, 2015, ➝.
Elyna Niles-Carnes, “NASA Adjusts Crew-10 Launch Date,” December 17, 2024, ➝; see also Eric Berger, “NASA will swap Dragon spacecraft on the ground to return Butch and Suni sooner,” Ars Technica, February 6, 2025.
Oliver Milman, “Trump asks Musk to bring back two astronauts ‘stranded’ on space station,’ The Guardian, January 29, 2025, Jackie Wattles, “Weeks from homecoming, Boeing Starliner astronauts want to set the record straight,” CNN, February 13, 2025; Miranda Bryant, “Elon Musk in row with Danish astronaut over claim Biden abandoned ISS pair,” The Guardian, February 21, 2025; and Aaron Gregg and Christian Davenport, “Starliner crew says they were unaware of any Musk offer for earlier return,” Washington Post, March 4, 2025.
Kenneth Chang, “NASA says Space Station astronaut is in ‘incredible health,’” New York Times, November 14, 2024.
Swapna Krishna, “Why aren't Boeing and SpaceX spacesuits compatible?” Ad Astra, August, 19, 2024, ➝.
Resolution adopted by the United Nations’ General Assembly 2222 (XXI), “Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies”, 1967, ➝.
Eric Lipton, “F.A.A. Temporarily Halts Launches of Musk’s Starship After Explosion,” New York Times, January 17, 2025.
Examples include Jayme S.J. Schwartz, “Lunar Labor Relations,” in Dissent, Revolution, and Liberty Beyond Death, ed. Charles S. Cockell (Berlin: Springer, 2016): 41-58; Erika Nesvold, “Protecting Labor Rights in Space,” in Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration, eds. Jayme S.J. Schwartz, Linda Billings, and Erika Nesvold (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023): 241-250; and Erica Nesvold, Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2024).
Andrea Hsu, “Accused of violating worker rights, SpaceX and Amazon go after labor board,” National Public Radio, November 18, 2024.
Danielle Kaye and Rebecca Davis O’Brien, “Trump Firings at Labor Board Paralyze the Agency,” New York Times, January 28, 2025.
Kenneth Chang, “NASA Artemis Moon Missions delayed until 2026 and 2027,” New York Times, December 5, 2024.
“The Artemis Accords: Principles for Cooperation in the Civil Exploration and Use of the Moon, Mars, Comets, and Asteroids for Peaceful Purposes,” 2020, ➝; see also Joey Roulette, “Exclusive: Trump administration drafting 'Artemis Accords' pact for moon mining – sources,” Reuters, May 6, 2020; and “ ‘Star Trek, not Star Wars:’ NASA releases basic principles for moon exploration pact,” Reuters, May 16, 2020.
The White House, “Executive Order on Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources,” April 6, 2020, ➝.
Kenneth Chang, “What Trump’s Pledge to Plant the U.S. Flag on Mars Really Means,” New York Times, January 21, 2025.
“Musk’s Mission to Mars,” Financial Times, January 31, 2025.
“Space Science is for Everyone: An Open Letter,” February 6, 2025. Available at ➝. See also Kenneth Chang, “NASA Astronaut Recruitment Faces Trump’s Moves Against D.E.I.,” New York Times, February 3, 2025
Andrew Jones, “NASA must ‘consider alternatives’ to put Artemis astronauts on the Moon, experts tell US Congress,” Space.com, February 27, 2025, ➝.
The White House, “National Space Policy of the United States of America,” June 28, 2010, ➝.
U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, Public Law 114-90, November 25, 2015, ➝; see also Christopher Davenport, “How Barack Obama brought capitalism to outer space,” Washington Post, October 11, 2016; and Mike Wall, “President Obama’s space legacy: Mars, private spaceflight, and more,” Space.com, January 20, 2017, ➝.
Christopher Newman, “Artemis Accords: Why many countries are refusing to sign Moon exploration agreement,” The Conversation, October 19, 2020.
Haris Durrani, “Interpreting ‘Space Resources Obtained: Historical and Postcolonial Interventions in the Law of Commercial Space Mining,” Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 57 (2018): 403–460; and Cait Storr, “ ‘Space Is the Only Way to Go’: The Evolution of the Extractivist Imaginary of International Law,” in Routledge Handbook of International Law and the Humanities, eds. Shane Chalmers and Sundya Pahuja (London: Routledge, 2021): 290-301.
Jonathan Corum, “Now boarding: Space X’s new ride to orbit for NASA astronauts,” New York Times, May 30, 2020.
NASA, “Weather on the Moon,” ➝.
Ceri Nunn et al., “Lunar Seismology: A Data and Instrumentation Review,” Space Science Review 216 (2020): 89.
Ethan Waisberg, Joshua Ong, and Andrew G. Lee, “Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC): Implications of a Lunar-centric Time Zone on Astronaut Health and Space Medicine,” Life Sciences in Space Research 42 (2024): 72-73.
Andrew Petro, “Surviving and Operating Through the Lunar Night,” 2020 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers: 1-6; see also Leonard David, “Surviving the lunar night can be a challenge for astronauts on the Moon,” Space.com, November 14, 2022.
Gerald B. Sanders, Julie E. Kleinhenz, and Dale Boucher, “Lunar Mining and Processing: Considerations for Responsible Space Mining & Connections to Terrestrial Mining,” ASCEND Conference 2023 (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2023), 4621.
Silvana Miranda et al., “A Dusty Road for Astronauts,” Biomedicines 11, no. 7 (2023): 1921; and Michael Pohlen et al., “Overview of lunar dust toxicity risk,” npj Microgravity 8 (2022): 55.
John T. James and Noreen Kahn-Mayberry, “Risk of Adverse Health Effects from Lunar Dust Exposure,” in Human Health and Performance Risks of Space Exploration Missions: Evidence Reviewed by the NASA Human Research Program, eds. Jancy C. McPhee and John B. Charles (Houston: NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2009), 317-330.
Chayakrit Krittanawong et al., “Human Health during Space Travel: State-of-the-Art Review,” Cells 12, no. 1 (2022): 40; and Thomas J. Goodwin and Melpo Christofidou-Solomidou, “Oxidative Stress and Space Biology: An Organ-Based Approach,” International Journal of Molecular Science 19, no. 4 (2018): 959.
Laura K. Barger et al., “Sleep and cognitive function of crewmembers and mission controllers working 24-h shifts during a simulated 105-day spaceflight mission,” Acta Astronautica 93 (2014): 230-242.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Space Radiation and Astronaut Health: Managing and Communicating Cancer Risks (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2021).
Jodi Dean, Aliens in America: Conspiracy Cultures from Outerspace to Cyberspace (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 99.