In the middle of a story from USA Today on the number of space launches in 2021 rivalling the heyday of the Space Race in the 1960s, a sentence about the traffic on Florida’s Space Coast stands out as an example of how needs in one industry impact the performance of another:
SpaceX and United Launch Alliance had been looking to push that number closer to 40, but chip shortages and the need for liquid oxygen – a critical rocket propellant – to treat coronavirus patients slowed the cadence.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused a shortage of computer chips, which are needed for space launches using liquid oxygen, which is in short supply because of the coronavirus pandemic.