Just before high noon on July 8th, the space shuttle Atlantis will slip the surely bonds of earth and embark on its final launch into outer space. This will mark the final manned shuttle mission for the United States and an end of an era.
When I was a young boy I spent many nights dreaming of becoming a space cadet. I’d wave to the crowd below as I walked the platform leading to the capsule of my rocket ship and I’d mouth inaudible nothings to my crewmates as we boarded. After a flawless takeoff we’d overcome death-defying events throughout our mission and, of course, make it home safely to the embraces of our wives and an adoring public.
I was certainly not the only kid to have such a dream. In fact, it was this dream that imbued generations before me with the spirit and willingness to make it a reality. It was their dreams that allowed mine to be had.
Yet, I see the end of the manned space shuttle missions as somewhat of an inevitability. After thirty years, 135 launches, and two wrecks, what tangible benefits have we, as a country, reaped from spending hundreds of billions of dollars to send men and women into space? Sure we’ve completed a few science projects, gathered moon rocks and can boast that only Americans have stepped foot on the lunar surface–leaving an unwavering US flag stabbed in the heart of the Sea of Tranquility as elucidation our exceptionalism. But to a fickle electorate and politicking politicians, yesterday’s achievements are today’s burdens.
The burden of mountainous debts and indiscernible returns on investment are the shackles grounding future space missions. Also, our country does not face the Soviet threat as we did in the 1960s and we have not been challenged by a Kennedyesque figure to achieve what many thought was the unachievable. Because the reservoir of public support to confront these challenges ran so deep, NASA conjured the credibility to suck up roughly 4.4% of total government spending during the Apollo-era.
In a 2010 speech, president Obama effectively cancelled the space program then went on to make an unpromising call for a manned mission to a nearby asteroid and to Mars by 2030. But after tomorrow, the future of the US space program will be in the hands of private corporations like SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, which, if compared to NASA and its achievements, appear still to be in the nascent stages of rocketry and exploration. It seems that the next Americans in space will be paying guests aboard Russian spacecrafts.
I remain confident, however, in the future of space exploration. It wasn’t the need to figure out a science problem or taxpayer benevolence that led to our past achievements—it was a sense of national solidarity, a can-do spirit, and personal challenge. While the country’s political and economic resources will always be limited, a human being’s capacity to dream is endless. One day we’ll all dream big dreams again.
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