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How Subsidiarity Got Astronauts Home and Gets the Mail Delivered, by Mark Henry – Brown Pelican Society of Lousiana

How Subsidiarity Got Astronauts Home and Gets the Mail Delivered, by Mark Henry

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Astronaut Anne McClain plays with a plush Earth toy inside SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule The vehicle docked to the International Space Station on March 3 2019 marking the first arrival of a humanrated commercial spaceship at the footballfieldsize laboratorypimgdivp NASA TV datamcecaptionAstronaut Anne McClain plays with a plush Earth toy inside Space Xs Crew Dragon capsule The vehicle docked to the International Space Station on March 3 2019 marking the first arrival of a humanrated commercial spaceship at the football field size laboratory. (Source: Business Insider).

By Mark Henry, Crisis Magazine, March 24, 2025

Mark Henry is a Catholic attorney, author, and philanthropic advisor. Mark is the author of Finish Faithful, The ABCs of Planned Giving, and other publications and resource materials. He can be reached on 𝕏 @MarkHenry261775.

 

The symbolism of SpaceX rescuing astronauts when governmental agencies and massive defense contractors were seemingly unwilling or unable to act underscores the relevance of the Catholic principle of subsidiarity.

Like many Americans, my heart swelled with pride as I watched the astronauts land safely in the Gulf of America. The SpaceX rescue of the stranded astronauts ended wonderfully, but it also highlighted an important lesson: why a relatively small company was able to succeed where a governmental bureaucracy (NASA) and its go-to military-industrial-complex contractor (Boeing) could not. That lesson becomes clear when viewed through the Catholic social teaching of subsidiarity.

Only after the intrepid space travelers were safe and heading home did the irony of the moment strike me. The combined might of NASA and Boeing—one of the country’s largest and oldest defense contractors—was powerless to bring the astronauts back from space. Instead, it was up to the upstart SpaceX to rescue them and return them to their families. …

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