The end of American exploration?
By Brian Schoeneman | Friday, July 8th, 2011 | Catch-All, Technology
We say this a lot, but today it is actually true – it’s the end of an era.
The first manned spaceflight took place on April 12, 1961, when Yuri Gagarin was launched into low earth orbit by the Soviet Union. Already surprised by the launch of Sputnik in 1957, American kicked our space program into high gear, beating the Soviets to the moon and inaugurating the Space Age.
Twenty years to the day from Gagarin’s , the Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off on the first Shuttle mission. Thirty years and five shuttles later, today saw the last Space Shuttle launch, when Atlantis blasted off on its final voyage to the International Space Station.
I was three years old when Columbia launched. I, like many kids my age, grew up with the shuttle program, and America’s clear lead in the space race. NASA was one of the few government agencies that people still trusted and believed in. I was eight when Challenger was destroyed, and I still remember it vividly. Columbia had always been my favorite shuttle, and I was deeply affected by her loss on February 1, 2003 – a date I don’t need to look up. I remember watching the movie Space Camp as a kid and I was still in the generation where kids wanted to grow up to be astronauts.
Today, NASA’s image has been tarnished, and America’s love affair with manned spaceflight has waned. Shuttle launches are watched more to see if a disaster occurs than to see the miracle of modern technology at work. Most kids today couldn’t name a Shuttle astronaut and I’m willing to bet that astronaut doesn’t rank in the top ten professions kids aspire to be anymore. Household names like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Jim Lovell, Sally Ride – they just aren’t around anymore. Other than Gabby Gifford’s husband Mark Kelly, there haven’t been many astronauts prominent lately.
I’m saddened by the last shuttle flight. It effectively marks the end of America’s dominance in space. While there was a five year gap between the end of the Apollo/Soyuz missions and the beginning of the Shuttle program, there was never any question that we would continue manned spaceflight. The shuttle program itself began in the late sixties and was well underway by the time the Apollo/Soyuz missions wrapped up – the test flights of the prototype shuttle Enterprise took place in 1976, a year after Apollo ended.
We do not have a replacement shuttle ready to go. In fact, we’re years away from having a replacement. We’ll be buying space from Russia on future Soyuz missions to fulfill our obligations to support the International Space Station.
I recognize that we live in a time where budgets are tight and money is scarce. But I can’t help but feel that we’re losing something inherently American by allowing NASA and our manned spaceflight programs to whither on the vine. I was excited when President Bush announced the goal of returning to the moon by 2020 and establishing a permanent base there. And I opposed President Obama’s scrapping of that goal, and instead focusing funds on the space station and commercialization. Exploration of space has been part of the American experience since the 1950s – we took the lead, we have been the pioneers. We shouldn’t simply give that up because of economic pressures. The long-term impact of our exploration of space is too important.
Budgets are about priorities. I firmly believe the space program should be a key American priority. I wish we had a plan going forward. I wish this wasn’t the last flight of the shuttle. And I wish I had confidence in this Administration to fix this problem. But I don’t.
Godspeed, Atlantis. Let’s hope you aren’t the end of America’s manned space exploration program.
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About the author
A veteran political professional, a long-time Republican party activist and new attorney, Brian W. Schoeneman has been offering his opinions at Bearing Drift since 2010. He serves on the Board of Virginia Line Media, LLC, which operates Bearing Drift and spends his days representing the U.S. Merchant Marine in Washington, D.C. He hails from Fairfax County, Virginia, where he lives with his wife and son.
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Comments
13 Responses to "The end of American exploration?"
Perhaps something along the lines of Virgin Galactic
http://www.virgingalactic.com/
We should keep exploring space because we can.
Aside from the technology advances that space exploration brings, with effects far beyond the sphere of pure science, there’s just something dead in the soul of anyone who doesn’t want us to go to Mars and beyond.
We should go there because nobody ever has and that’s what humans are about.
I am a bit suprised to hear Brian call for more government involvement in space exploration, when the exiting of a small part of that role will stimulate private investment in exploration and exploitation that will dwarf what has been done so far. Similar to the internet, once a government network, now, it can topple nations and create a world audience. Kind of amazing to hear republicans who support capitalism and private investment calling for more government involvement. And Brian, if I have misconstrued your thoughts, I am sure you will offer corrections.
Mike, I have no problems with commercial space exploration. If folks can make money doing it, go for it. My concern is that I believe that exploration, particularly space exploration, became so fundamental to American life over the last 70 years that I believe it has become a core government function. We shouldn’t simply give that up because we have competing priorities. It should remain a priority.
It didn’t take government subsidies to get the internet moving, nor did it take the government getting out of the internet to get the private sector going in there. While the internet began as a government project and the datalinks originally set up were government based, it’s hard to compare the space program with the internet. Unless NASA will be turning over all their rockets to the private sector, I don’t see how NASA and the government exiting the manned spaceflight business is going to help anything.
Well Brian, good points, but I think you exaggerate the exit of NASA from space exploration. Nothing of the sort is happening as their focus shifts away from running a trucking service to actual science.
Mike: It should be publicly funded because, in the history of human beings, voyages of exploration have usually been national endevours…think Columbus or Lewis & Clark. The rising and advancing of the species should be a government concern.
There is room for private enterprise as well.
The Virginia Company certainly did a good job of planting the seeds that would flower into the United States.
Steve, I agree, and point out that NASA space exploration is not ending at all. In fact, the now rather mundane task of running logistics to the space station could very well be taken over by capitalists and I hope it will. Then NASA can focus on science and exploration.
“My concern is that I believe that exploration, particularly space exploration, became so fundamental to American life over the last 70 years that I believe it has become a core government function. We shouldn’t simply give that up because we have competing priorities. It should remain a priority.”
Brian, I can (and do!) say the VERY same for PBS. I watched the “giant leap for all mankind” on a b/w TV and was also fortunate enough to be interning at NASA when Viking I delivered the first pictures of Mars’ surface. Exploration defines us and yes, there are most certainly areas important to our culture (and our humanity) that can’t offer the financial returns demanded by independent investment and that government (We the People) must support. Thanks for the article.
This is probably the best thread I’ve encountered on BD top to bottom (exceptimg me of course).
Footnote: Just to be clear I meant excepting in the sense of not including
I rather fancy the Dream Chaser myself.
http://www.space.com/2-top-10-fantasy-spaceships-headed-reality.html
Many argue that the shuttle program has restricted astronauts to low-Earth orbit for 30 years.
If you want your children “to boldly go where no man has gone before” then the next step is to establish a colony on the moon.
[...] what’s my beef with The end of American exploration? by Brian Schoeneman? Although the post is sentimental, it provides a well-written, concise [...]
NASA has hardly restricted astronauts to LEO for 30 years. On the contrary, NASA has invested 30 years to building an extraterrestrial platform that will be critical to understanding how to maintain zero gravity spaceports in the future. When we invent interstellar drive (and we will) we will need to have the capability to launch missions without expending 90 percent of the energy just to escape Earth’s gravity.
As to whether private industry can replace the government, space exploration is as much a government function as national defense and cannot be left to private enterprise. We cannot allow a corporation to own and operate our exploratory spacecraft anymore than we can allow Northrop Grumman to own and operate our aircraft carriers. In particular, Mike, it is no more inconsistent for free-enterprise advocates to insist on government predominance in space exploration than it is for us to insist on government predominance in strategic force protection.
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