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REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2023 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE I I-CONNECT007 39 back into the economy and improve our lives on Earth." Calandrelli herself needed no introduction. Virtually everyone in the room recognised the MIT-engineer turned Emmy-nominated sci- ence TV host, author, and science communica- tor known on social media as "The Space Gal." Calandrelli declared that in all the work she does, her goal is the same: to make science and space more welcoming to more people. In her keynote, she promised to talk about the past, present, and future of the space industry; why we are currently in a space renaissance; and why space is more exciting now than ever before. Why now? What has changed? Cost is a major factor—reusable rockets have drasti- cally reduced launch costs. Satellites are now effectively obtainable off-the-shelf, and because they are becoming smaller and lighter, they are cheaper to launch. The infu- sion of private finance has also reduced entry barriers into the industry, so more companies worldwide are able to do new and different things in space. Space tourism—"billionaires in space"—is one such fashionable trend. Having mentioned reusable rockets, Calan- drelli expressed concern about China's atti- tude toward its launch equipment, which the country currently sees as disposable, allow- ing it to fall who-knows-where in uncon- trolled re-entry. Space debris is becoming a serious issue, and "orbit cleaners" will be needed in the future. Calandrelli questioned priorities, such as whether to spend resources on deflecting asteroids or on going back to the moon. She was excited about the Artemis 1 mission—the launch of the most powerful rocket ever— even though the program had been beset by many delays. Though there was no crew on this first major spaceflight in the Artemis program, there will be in future missions, and Calandrelli looks forward to seeing the first woman on the moon. Calandrelli then touched on the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the space industry, a sector whose work typically relies on international partners sharing their capa- bilities and resources. A falling out with one nation has the potential to initiate a domino effect across the industry. Russia has stopped launching and consequently caused major interruptions to joint programs. For example, a European Space Agency project is now suf- fering a potential six-year delay. The possibil- ity that Russia could cause damage to a com- mercial satellite also raises serious liability questions. On the subject of looking into the past, Calandrelli identified the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as a major source of current excitement. The largest optical telescope in space, the JWST cost $10 billion, and it pos- sesses the resolution and sensitivity to view objects older and more distant than those that can be detected by the Hubble Space Telescope. To explain how the JWST allows us to see further back in time to the Big Bang, Calandrelli used an analogy based on the sun being eight light minutes away from Earth.