Fifty Years in Space, But Will We See More?
I find it amazing that the entire history of manned spaceflight can very nearly fit within my own lifetime. Today marks two important anniversaries in mankind’s attempt to explore the vast universe outside our own world. Rand Simberg gives us the details.
Tomorrow will be the fiftieth anniversary of the first time a human orbited the earth, when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin rocketed into space, made almost a complete circuit around the planet, entered the atmosphere, and returned to terra firma. By international standards in place at the time, his flight didn’t meet the technical requirements for human spaceflight, which demanded that he return to the planet with his spacecraft (he ejected and parachuted down separately), but no one knew this at the time, and it was another great propaganda victory for the Soviets in the space race with the Americans, who were still reeling from the Sputnik surprise three and a half years earlier.
It’s another human spaceflight anniversary as well. It will have been exactly thirty years since the first flight of a Space Shuttle (Columbia), on April 12th, 1981. The program is scheduled to be retired this year after three decades of service (including two periods of almost three years each when it was shut down as a result of the Challenger andColumbia losses, in 1986 and 2003, respectively). That the date is the same is a coincidence — NASA had originally scheduled the first flight for April 10th, but a computer timing glitch delayed it for two days, serendipitously resulting in the inaugural launch occurring exactly two decades after the first human spaceflight.
Since the first shuttle launch, our achievements have come fewer and fewer and our vision for exploring the vastness of space has shrunk so far that it can barely contain a series of small unmanned vehicles and a single station in low Earth orbit. The reasons we have dared little and achieved even less are complicated but they essentially come down to politics, as most decisions placed in the hands of government do.
One day, America may send brave explorers out into space once more, but I’m skeptical. It may be that our most ambitious and bravest days are behind us. Or, perhaps, the truly courageous and visionary among us will simply step around the timidity of our government and get out there on their own. I would hope that is the latter is the case, we are bold enough to support their efforts and resolute enough to help shove the sclerotic bureaucracy that could not “win the future” out of the way.
I’ll have more to say on our space program and how it can kickstart far more than we imagine on The Delivery tonight. If you can’t make the live show at 9:30 P.M. Eastern, be sure to subscribe to the podcast.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Don’t Swagger, NASA. You Haven’t Earned It Yet.
- Shuttle Endeavor Lights Up the Sky
- There’s Water on That Thar Rock!
Category: Out in the Black
