Go to the Moon, revisited

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

We all heard those words. We knew what it meant. As Neil Armstrong took that historic step down onto the lunar surface, we all knew this was the opening of a whole new era in exploration. It felt, to many of us, that this was Christopher Columbus all over again. Man had made another step into an unknown world, and we knew this was going to be the start of a new round of exploration and discovery. After the heady excitement of Apollo 11, we watched one moon landing after another. At least ten were planned, with more on the drawing board. But it was not to be. Not even close.

The 60’s were over, and with it apparently, so was our idealism. The Viet Nam war was ending, badly. Watergate was in full swing. Americans weren’t feeling very good about themselves. And I think we just gave up. After five moon landings, we canceled the rest. We had beaten the Soviets, and I guess that was all that mattered. Exploration? A waste of time. Science? A waste of money. 

Maybe we ran out of money. Or maybe we just decided to spend our tax dollars more wisely. I suppose you could look at it that way. And of course, that’s how most people did. But maybe we just lost our drive. Our focus went from outward, reaching beyond where man has ever gone and what he has ever done, to inward, just trying to maintain what we were. And that never works.

I understand fiscal responsibility. I understand spending money on pressing problems. But we were at one time the leaders in space exploration. We were the country that could put a man on the moon. We felt we could do anything. Now, we have virtually no manned space program. We have no means to put a human in orbit. When we need to put someone on the space station, we have to hitch a ride with the Russians. Just one more area where Americans have fallen behind. 

I suppose I’m a dreamer. Or even foolish. We have more urgent problems right here on our own planet, I guess. But we’re always going to have problems. We will always be able to find things that seem more important than exploration.

But it will happen. Eventually. If Queen Isabella had told Columbus that no, she would rather spend her money on something else, the Americas still would have been discovered. It was inevitable; it just would have taken more time. And so it is with space exploration. Even now there are private companies that have taken on the role of attempting to put us back into orbit. And that would be a start. But even that only gets us to where we were fifty years ago. Yet the real exploration will happen eventually. But probably not in my lifetime. 

For those of you who are old enough, think of how you felt when we were all huddling around our TV’s watching that first lunar landing. Think of how proud you were of not just Americans, but all mankind in general. And now think of how you feel when you watch the constant bickering in America now. In government, in business, in just about all areas of our lives. All of us trying to get ahead, somehow.

And I ask you, which is a better feeling?