EXCLUSIVE: Former NASA Leader Charles Bolden, Jr. Warns Against Colonialism in Space

Former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr.’s vision for humanity’s future is one in which our reach stretches far beyond Earth, our lives have equitable value, and we pool resources and knowledge for the benefit of all.

Growing up in segregated South Carolina, the retired U.S. Marine Corps major general became an astronaut in 1980, flew four space shuttle missions and logged more than 680 hours in space. In July 2009, he made history as the first Black person confirmed by the Senate to lead NASA. Throughout his tenure in the Obama administration, Bolden championed representation across the agency and the space industry, including through diversity and inclusion initiatives and appointments that broke barriers in leadership, featuring women and peoples of color.

However, some scholars and astronomers warn that the U.S. is on a dangerous path toward repeating its history of racist disenfranchisement and colonization as the country leads the world in space exploration. 

White, wealthy tech oligarchs lead the private space exploration sector – profiting from lucrative U.S. government contracts. Executive leadership at companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, engineering and investment firms, is overwhelmingly White. And for the first time in nearly 40 years, NASA’s most recent astronaut class did not include a Black astronaut and the majority of candidates are White.

Bolden spoke with The Emancipator ahead of America’s 250th anniversary about concerns over colonization spreading to the cosmos and who is benefiting from the modern era of space exploration.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Chandelis Duster: Do you think the current direction of space exploration is for the benefit of all humanity, or just those who are wealthy?

Charles Bolden, Jr.: Well, I would have to admit the vast majority of those who own the companies are wealthy and White. I have not met, you know,… a major Black space owner yet. I’m hoping that one of these days I will, or that one of my friends from the astronaut office or from NASA will go off and found a company. 

In the private sector, we hear terms like new frontier, pioneering, and even colonization that have been used by Elon Musk, particularly about going to Mars, to describe humanity’s future in space. Given the historical pain that’s attached to those words, do they make you uncomfortable?

Yeah, we should not be using colonization with reference to space exploration at all. I strongly object to the use of that word. It connotes something that you and I both know exactly what people mean when they say that, and that’s not why we go to space, that’s not why we explore.

He added later, The term alien — I encourage people not to use the term alien when they’re talking. I believe that we will find life elsewhere in the universe. It may not be like you and me, but I think that there is microbial life or something else that will not be an alien life form. That’ll be an extraterrestrial life form. Alien is sort of like colonization or colony. It has a bad connotation because people who use it a lot use it in a negative sense. That “those people” are bad. If you’re an alien, you’re bad. So I don’t use them. And I would encourage people who are into space exploration, even if they’re into space exploration looking for life elsewhere, I would not call it alien. 

When I think about us going to the moon and exploring space, are there values that we should be taking with us, and any values we should be leaving?

Anything we do today, we should leave behind. We have no values right now as a nation. And that is not fair. Our government right now has lost all vision of values. We [celebrated] one thing called the Declaration of Independence here on the Fourth of July. People would do well to read it over and over and over again. And then what they would really do well to read is the thing that establishes the principles and values and puts into print the idea on which this nation was founded, and that’s our Constitution. The very first words in it. It says, “We the people.” We need to remember that it’s not about all of them. It’s about all of us. And those are the values I would take to any planet. I’d take the copy of the Constitution and say we can change this stuff around as we need. But if we’re going to live as a space-faring, peace-loving nation that really values all people the way we say in this Constitution, let’s try it. 

Some scholars are saying that the current direction of space exploration is at risk of repeating the same patterns that accompany colonial expansion on Earth, and that we’re even seeing patterns of it now when it comes to competition and extraction, trying to get resources from the moon. Do you agree with some of these scholars?

I agree partially with the scholars when they talk about competition for resources. No one nation is gonna have the right to dominate that particular place. We will share what we get there and we’ll do stuff that’s mutually beneficial for everybody. And that’s what you want. You want nations of the world to agree that, ‘okay, we’re gonna get there, and when we get there, we’re gonna figure out a way that everybody can get some of the resources, and we can live peacefully there.’ We don’t want to take warfare into outer space.

Throughout history, colonization has often involved a small group making decisions and imposing their cultural values which affected many people without their consent. Are there any parallels that people should be paying attention to as private companies and some wealthy nations begin shaping humanity’s future in space?

Yes, there are big things we should all be paying attention to, and one of them is paying attention to what our own nation, the United States, is asking of other nations. If we get to the point that we want to dictate what’s in the Artemis Accords, as an example, that we don’t want to have a forum where every signatory comes together and we mutually agree on what those norms of behavior, what those standards are going to be. If we begin to dictate the standards, then we’re headed in the wrong direction. And I would say every nation that’s a signatory should begin to be leery and to panic, and to bring us back to the table to try to put us in order like everyone else. 

Some scholars are also critical of plans to go to the moon and Mars. They feel that the extraction of minerals falls in line with what happened during colonialism when Europeans were going, coming and taking from native peoples on their land. Is there a way that if we do go to the moon and we mine and we find these minerals, that it is not falling in line with the same extraction pattern that was done during colonialism?

One of the things that some people are doing now is involving Indigenous populations and their faith because some of them, Native American tribes, that have a particular worship of the moon, and there are certain parts of the moon that are religiously significant to them and, in their minds, should not be touched. 

It’s not very hard to at least gather all these people in and find out, ‘Okay, who’s got heartburn with us going back to the moon and what is it? How would you recommend we do this?’ We’re not staying away from the moon just because your faith holds the moon sacred and precious. No group of people has the right to deny everybody else in the world access… I haven’t heard any tribe that says that, but you do hear more and more from Indigenous populations that are very concerned about just going in and taking everything away. I share their concern.

The most recent astronaut class did not include a Black astronaut, and you worked intentionally during your tenure to broaden representation within NASA, even among astronauts. The fact that we did not see a Black astronaut as part of this class – is this a trend that we could expect in the future? What does this signal to you?

I hope it is not a trend of what we’ll see in the future. I’m not happy like everybody else isn’t happy. We do see diversity because it had a significant number of women in the class, but we have to be careful that we don’t become numb to how we view diversity. Whether, just the presence of multiple genders is diverse enough for us, or do we really want a more extensive diversity where we have racial representation, religious representation, cultural representation?

If you talk to the current Secretary of Defense, who likes to call himself the Secretary of War, his favorite saying is ‘diversity is not a strength. It’s not our strength.’ He could not be more incorrect.

I think every member of the U.S. military knows that diversity is, in fact, our strength. It is what makes us so great, because we have people from all walks of life, from all countries. 

Since you were sworn in as a NASA administrator, there’s not been another person of color who’s been appointed and confirmed by the Senate to head NASA. What does that say about who gets entrusted to lead America’s space agency, and who is actually making those decisions?

Unfortunately, I always said when I was the NASA administrator, everybody used to like to tout the fact that I was the first Black administrator, and I said, ‘That doesn’t count.’ It’s important to have a first. But a first without a second and a third and everything else doesn’t count. That means you have not attained the level of equality and fairness and equity that you’re seeking. 

If humanity does one day establish permanent settlements beyond Earth, what lessons from Earth’s colonial history should be carried with us, and what mistakes should we work to consciously avoid?

Number one, in my estimation…because of my heritage and my background, the number one is to help people understand that if we’re gonna survive as a species, we’ve got to figure out a way to accept people who are not like us.