Justin Scrivens

Dr. Guenzel 

ENC 1102 

15 March 2021 

Rhetorical Analysis Part 2

In the article, "Coronavirus outbreak shakes the space industry: Here are the biggest

effects so far" the author, Mike Wall discusses the effects of the recent global pandemic on the

space industry. The exigencies of the article can clearly be interpreted from the title of the article,

but to put it explicitly the exigence is the damaging effects the global pandemics has caused the

space industry. Before becoming a writer for space.com in 2010, Wall was a wildlife biologist

and had a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology. While when you think of biology you do not think of

space, all fields of science have a role in space travel. 

This article was not meant to scare people of the damages to the industry, it presents facts to

rationally explain that like so many other industries, the space industry has fallen upon difficult

times during this pandemic, and the article even acknowledges that people already have a lot of

more pressing concerns about the world's situation. Wall demonstrates this intent when he states,

"The economic impacts of COVID-19 are already significant, as anyone who keeps an eye on the

stock market has surely noticed." To support his purpose of explaining the negative effects the

space industry is feeling at the moment, Wall uses facts of events and dates, and to make his

information more reliable he presents the readers with information about different space

companies around the world. He finds the intertextuality between the events of these companies
and other space events to support his argument. He talks specifically about NASA, SpaceX, ESA

(European Space Agency), and Russia's space agency, and connects each companies hindrances

to support his argument that the pandemic has shaken the space industry.

Wall presents arguments in order of cause and effects, obviously the main cause is COVID-19

but in the article, he first describes the direct effect of the pandemic and then describes its

indirect effect. For example in the article, Mike explains that currently, NASA has its employees

working from home, which is the direct effect of the pandemic. He then explains, "...the agency

has temporarily halted most production and testing of its Space Launch System (SLS) mega

rocket and Orion capsule, which together will help get astronauts to the moon and Mars." The

fact that NASA employees are working from home is significant because engineering is a very

collaborative subject. Engineers often bounce ideas off of each other, test what works and what

does not. While the NASA engineers can still communicate and collaborate via zoom, skype, or

calling each other, it is much less efficient and productive than when people meet and talk in

person. Through face-face communication, people find it easier to converse and support their

message. 

Wall also explains, “The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project, in contrast, was not able to

power through the outbreak. The EHT, an international consortium of about 200 scientists who

last year revealed the first-ever direct images of a black hole, had to cancel it's 2020 observing

campaig (Links to an external site.)n.” This is just another example of how the pandemic halted

another company's developing understanding of space. Furthering our understanding of space is

very important to the development of our society. It is through observation of natural phenomena

and experimentation that humans make discoveries and create new technology, and this article is
not saying that no new technologies will be invented during the pandemic is merely discussing

the hated progress in space-related discoveries and their advancements to the industry. 

Wall also explains that it is not just the companies that are affected, many science conferences

were canceled, which is a big deal. When writing my final paper, I will use this article to support

my claim that the space industry has been negatively affected by the global pandemic but I will

also be using other articles in addition to this one, and in doing that I will find the intertextuality

between the articles.

Throughout this article Wall mainly focuses on using logos to support his arguments. Of the

three appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) logos is the strongest so I believe that by supporting his

arguments with facts and data Wall made his article a reliable source. Although he focuses on

logos Wall did use some ethos. It is beneficial to throw in ethos when you are using other

sources the write something, so the reader can know that the information is reliable and Wall

does this because he often explains where he got the information he is reporting from and they

were all reliable.

Before the pandemic, the human race was taking great strides in building our presence in space.

Since the 1960s our space-related discoveries and advancements have been increasing

exponentially, but if we hit a roadblock who knows when we will pick back up again.

Work Cited 

Wall, M. (2020, March 13). Coronavirus outbreak shakes the space industry: Here are the biggest

effects so far. Retrieved March 03, 2021, from https://www.space.com/coronavirus-covid-19-

space-industry-impacts.htmlLinks to an external site.