Atlantis Rising
on 05/11/2009 at 01:27 PM
As wonderful as the shuttle is, I not only look at the blase attitude that’s developed, I also look a the loss of vision that has happened to us here in the United States. I suspect that Drew and I are close in age.
I remember when the Russians launched sputnik and we all tried to find the little point of light as it orbited. Then there were our early failures and eventual success of the Explorer program. Then with the Ranger program. We launched a rocket with a TV camera that hit the moon. I saw that one on live TV. During the last minutes, the moon’s surface got bigger and bigger until the screen went blank a the moment of impact. When Alan Shepard made the first sub orbital flight, the school set up a television so we could all watch it and we swelled with pride. Not long after, I was busted by the teacher for hiding a little transistor radio and hiding the wire to my ear. I thought John Glenn was more important than anything she might say. She didn’t agree.
Gemini followed with space walks, rendevous and maneuvering. Our pride and excitement kept growing. Presidint Kennedy had said we would reach the moon by the end of the decade and we knew we were getting close.
National Geographic, Time, Life, Mechanics Illustrated, every other magazine that reported anything added coming details and plans. Sports Illustrated probably ran articles or at least referred to our space program. It wasn’t the space program, it was our space program. Every American held a piece of it in some way.
Apollo was the crowning glory, the last step. We marveled at the Saturn boosters. Huge monsters that launched with an earth shaking roar almost impossible to describe.
July 1969 - we landed on the moon. From Jules Verne to that moment, men the world over had dreamed of waling on the moon. We, America had done it. No one else could have.
When Apollo 13 nearly blew itself apart, we held our breath and scarcely breathed until the astronauts landed safely and waived for the TV cameras.
As a nation, we had a vision, a drive that had carried us. We were great. We could do anything and we were going to do it. For 10 years, a landing on Mars had been the next step after the moon. Then suddenly, Nixon talked about scaling back the space program. We weren’t going to Mars. We weren’t going back to the moon. We started the space shuttle and launched Skylab. Skylab was the first manned space station. Crude and short lived, the last Skylab crashed to earth in 1974. We talked about maybe another space station. Our vision of the future of advances, of pioneering the solar system was dying. Even the Space Shuttle program pretty much stopped for a while. No one really cared.
That was the time when we as a country lost our vision and our drive. We lost our pride of achievement.
Since then, other countries have started many other programs. Our automobile industry is in shambles, the market taken over by foreign manufacturers who can make a profit where we can’t. The Japanese seem to have robots well on their way, other countries are coming up fast. What have we done? 20 years ago, we launched the personal computer, but what have we done since then? If you want to see something interesting, check out computers and computer equipment coming from the People’s Republic.
So, where’s out vision? Where’s our drive and innovation? Where’s our pride? Flogging Wall Street won’t bring that back. Where do we go from here?
Hmm. My thoughts are essentially the same as those of Dr. Jeff. He said it very well, but I have one addition.
I truly fear we no longer have enough pride, fortitude or vision to remain a viable, world-leader nation.
Perhaps we’ve been liberal-educated and welfared into submission, or perhaps those of us who still do have pride and vision have just been exhausted by the constant battle to keep America out of euro-soialism and in first place.
I know that my own vision, as well as my energy level took a deep hit in early november.
The replacement for the shuttle seems like a step backwards to me.... a bigger Apollo capsule stuck on top of a Shuttle SRB? Who’s running NASA, Estes?
Jim - I remember Estes rockets from my childhood (when dinosaurs ruled the Earth).
Good comment.
SV: Same here, but I think the trilobites were in charge in my day.
Yup, me too. I used to compete at model rocket events as a kid. I was in the NAR long before I ever joined the NRA.
I remember the D13 engine, the one that used to blow up. Damn, that makes me feel old.
Ok all you old Astron Alpha flyers ... here is a real long walk down memory lane, here’s a link to the entire 1970 Estes catalog. That year they had the mini-motors, and the B14 and D13 engines, but they didn’t yet have any of that Skill Level I nonsense, but the little rocket I was asking about had been updated to take the mini-motors.
Golly, I went and found the current Estes catalog. Their toughest kit is a Skill Level III bird. I remember the Mars Lander ... that one would be about a Skill Level XXV today.
Wow, talk about a blast from the past… I had one of those orbiters from that catalog cover. Almost too pretty to launch. I made two copies of the glider/orbiter and hung them off a plain booster… not even finned, the gliders were the fins. At max altitude, both gliders would fall off and fly back in formation… really cool… at least back then.
