OUR SPACE PROGRAM IS AT A CROSSROADS
I remember my father waking me up early one morning when I was younger to watch something that was about to happen on television. I believe that this was the first time that he had actually made me watch something, having told me countless times when I was younger to stop watching television. We were about to see something Live on television that had never happened before. The launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia was an historic launch for NASA, and for me.
Fire shot from the end of the orbiter and the smoke bellowed from the launch pad, as the crew began that first voyage of the space shuttle program. I sat there and watched the launch of that inaugural flight and it was one of the most exciting things that I had ever seen. At eleven years old I had seen Star Wars and Star Trek but I had never seen the launch of a real space vehicle. It was a new era for the space program and I was there to see it begin.
I was born between the flights of Apollo 12 and Apollo 13. The manned missions to the moon ended when I was only two years old. There were a couple of times that the launched missions to Skylab when I was younger but I was too young to remember those. This was a historic launch because this was the first time that a space vehicle would blast off, return to earth, landing like an airplane, and then be used again.
Last week I sat and watched the final launch of the space shuttle program and the end of American manned space flight for the foreseeable future. It seems the cost of the program has begun to outweigh the potential benefit. Have we gone everywhere there is to go? Have we learned everything there is to know?
John F. Kennedy announced our plans to beat the Soviet Union to the moon in his speech to congress in 1961. “No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.” He realized that there would be a significant cost but the achievement would be worth it. The space program was a source of pride and something that the United States could do to set it apart from the Soviet Union.
One of the cost of the space program has been in human lives. The first lives lost to the American space program happened during a test of Apollo One. Three astronauts were killed in a fire on the launch pad just eighteen months before the historic moon landing. Included in that accident was fellow Hoosier Virgil I, Grissom. Hailing from nearby Mitchell Indiana, Gus, as he was known had been the second man in space. He was also rumored to be considered to be the commander of the first moon landing and could have been the first man to walk on the moon. Not too bad for a guy that grew up in a small town less than fifty miles from here.
In 1986 the Challenger exploded just after liftoff killing the crew of seven, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe. I was in high school when this happened and remember it like it was yesterday. After this tragic accident the program was put on hold for a while the program could be re-evaluated and so that changes could be made to the orbiter.
In 2003 the original space shuttle, Columbia, was destroyed during re-entry while completing its 28th mission in space. All seven astronauts were killed when the shuttle exploded. It was determined that the shuttle's heat shield had been damaged during liftoff and the intense heat caused the shuttle to break apart as it prepared to land. Some believe this tragedy was what has led to the end of the space program as we have known it for a generation.
The space program has given us many advances in technology including engineering, electronics and telecommunications. Many of the things that most of do on a daily basis including cell phone or internet communications come from advances that came directly from the United States space program. Much of our ability to obtain weather data comes from technology that would not have been possible without space flight.
A couple of products are sometimes mistaken for coming directly from the space program. Tang the breakfast drink was created before the beginning of the space race and became popular after John Glenn used it on his mission into space. Velcro, the product that has delayed a generation from the ability to tie their shoes has become widely used because of NASA's adoption of it but they are often improperly credited with its invention.
As the last space shuttle mission comes to an end The United States space program is at a crossroads. I think there are still things we have to learn and there are still many places we have yet to go. I believe that we should continue to travel into space to so that we may learn more about this universe that we live in. JFK said it best in his speech to Rice University in 1962, “If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time...”
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