Space - The final frontier... these are the lines that start one of the most successful Science Fiction television shows ever to be created, Star Trek. While Star Trek's technology and the various star ships in which the heros travel through space is not yet a reality, living in space has become a reality to some. Russian Cosmonauts have been spending months in space. The MIR space station program, and the U.S. forerunner to Mir, Skylab were the human race's first steps into space. For those of us growing up in the early 1960's this was a dream-come-true.
We watched in breathless wonder as Alan Sheppard became the first American man in space, albeit for about 15 minutes, he was a human being who left the planet, ventured beyond the atmosphere and then returned to tell about it. Later, John Glenn would become the first man to orbit the world multiple times, then splash down in the ocean in "Friendship 7", his space capsule. Through the 1960's we waited for space to come to us, through television. We reached out and touched the Moon itself in April, 1969. My entire family stayed home from work and school to watch first the touch down on the surface of the Moon, then many hours later, Neil Armstrong stepping out onto the surface of a world that had never before been touched by the human race.
After that, we visited the moon a few more times. The space program was one of the most exciting and important steps the human race has ever taken toward survival. The Shuttle Program, still going today, has had over fifty successful missions. One mission was a failure. The loss of seven astronauts in the Challenger explosion still haunts our space program even today. The picture of the seven hangs quietly on one of my walls above the computer and communications area of my home, my ham shack. When looking at that picture, I remember the 1960's and the original seven Astronauts who were to be America's heros in the years to come. Many of our astronauts, and some of the cosmonauts have given their lives in the pursuit of a dream... the dream of some day traveling through space and perhaps taking humanity with them.
Early in the Apollo missions, a test of Apollo 1 caused a fire. Three of America's heros died in the fire. Grissom, one of the original seven, Chaffe and White were all suited up and seated in the Apollo 1 Command Module. There were to be tests of the engines and other important electronic consoles. A fire broke out in the capsule, and fueled by the nearly pure oxygen content of the air inside, the fire spread rapidly. Nothing anyone could have done would have saved the three. I listened in horror as a youngster, as the news played the last words spoken by the three men. Their screams of pain are with me today. But, the mission and the world goes on. We did go on to touch the Moon.
Many years later, I was working for the White House Communications Agency. I was senior radio technician, travelling with the President, Vice President, First Lady and others associated with the White House. When I wasn't traveling, my job was to prepare trip-loads, large amounts of the communications equipment used to ensure that the VP or the President could communicate with the White House. Vice President Bush was planning a trip to meet with Christa McAuliffe, a teacher and payload specialist, after the historic trip billed by NASA as "The First Teacher in Space". As was our way at the time, I had finished building the trip load of several dozen pieces of equipment, and planned to go home for lunch. I lived on Bolling, Air Force base and was probably four minutes away. I expected to catch the launch on television. When I walked in, I realized I had missed the actual launch because my wife was standing in front of the television, almost in tears. She looked up and said, "Rick, the shuttle exploded". Everyone always joked about such things but no one expected it to happen. I watched the television for the next fifteen minutes, waiting to see parachutes, an escape pod, ANYTHING. We all saw nothing, and knew that another group of heros had died that day. I went back to my job and knew that the equipment load I had built would be going to Florida that afternoon. It did, and so did George Bush, where he laid a wreath in the ocean.
The Space program was set back many months and some of us believed that the government might never do anything again. A lot of us wrote letters, pleading with NASA and the US Government to continue, to "get the lead out" and get back to work. Eventually, they did and the Shuttle Program appears to be the most successful space program to date. I do not, however, believe it is enough. To date the US government has spent literally billions of dollars on the space program. Science has gained much knowledge. But, we are no closer to a space station today, than we were in the early 1980's. George Bush, while he was Vice President, had the 'duty' of overseeing the space program. This is a traditional job for the Vice President of the Unite States. At the time he was in office, he made a trip to the Johnson Space center and looked over the plans for the US Space Station. At the time is was slated to get funding on the order of 9 billion US dollars. Not long after he approved the project, Congress began cutting funds here and there. Eventually, the project was pretty much neutered. The station in those diagrams I personally saw many years ago will not fly in our life time. Oh, there is indeed an international space station planned, but in comparison to the "olden days" it is not a very large or far reaching project. The US Government has taken it on themselves to reduce costs by reducing space travel and exploration.
We constantly hear people in the news whining about this or that the government should or shouldn't do. Among those people, I have heard numerous times, folks on welfare complaining that they aren't getting enough money. I heard one lady, who stands out in my mind as the epitome of whiners, when she said, "If the government wouldn't spend so damn much money on going into space, and spend it here at home, I wouldn't be living like this." She motioned around behind her and she lived in an apartment in one of the larger cities (I think Chicago) and you saw she was living hand-to-mouth with her half-dozen or so children. I believe that the government sees this kind of thing, and thinks it is inappropriate to spend money on projects like space exploration, because of people like that. It only takes a few people to cause the government to do the WRONG thing.
While I feel for anyone put into bad circumstances, poor or out of work (I've been there), I do not feel as badly for someone when they won't help themselves. Our taxes go to 'support the government', to ensure that things like laws are justly and correctly upheld. We support the governments, local, state, regional and federal, because we have a need to have those governments in place to assist in natural disasters, keeping the peace, protecting us from other less-than-scrupulous governments. They are there to defend our country with our OWN manpower (the military). And... they are there to make our lives better by allowing us to do what we must for ourselves. The US Government in particular is there to handle things like our space program, to advance us enough so that all of us benefit. Space is a very, very big place and Earth is very, very insignificant when it comes to the size of space. Therefore, the money we spend to reach out and touch other worlds, to advance our science to a point where "Star Trek" is no longer science fiction is money well spent on the human race. Dollar for dollar, the money spent on moving the human race to the stars is more valuable than just handing it over to someone as welfare money.
The space program is the human race way of saying, "Get off your duff and let's see what's over the next ridge." Just like the pioneers of old, we know something is out there, something bigger than our own world even. We should, no MUST find out what lies beyond the next mountain, the next river, the next planet and the next solar system. There is a universe out there. Let's go see if we have neighbors!