On July 8th, space shuttle Atlantis will lift off from launch pad 39a, ending the 30 year space shuttle program. Launches have become so routine that the media barely take notice -- perhaps a few seconds of the rising rocket or crew maneuvers. More attention is given only when the unusual happens, such as the attendance of recovering Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
After 125 missions, perhaps this is to be expected. We can get used to almost anything, taking for granted what our energy, ingenuity, and dreams have granted us. The space program itself, now over half a century old, seems more the subject of budget battles and questions about relevance and priorities than it does about science.
Of course, space exploration costs money in a debt-ridden government. Of course, manned space flight has had its share of tragedies (the loss of Apollo and two shuttle crews). Of course, there are more serious problems on earth to be solved. Of course, the end of the shuttle program is not the end of NASA. But the lack of attention to recent flights and the silence from Americans about their end are striking. The Mercury astronauts lifting into space, the lunar landings of Apollo, and the photos of deep space from the Hubble telescope have somehow receded into history, no longer the subject of the awe with which we first beheld them. It's not the loss of the shuttle but the loss of that awe that should cause us to reflect.
The world is in need of awe. Beset by wars, debt, terrorism, climate change, religious fundamentalism, and poverty, humans are too focused on themselves and severely shell-shocked. Our lives need more of the miraculous. But the wonder that we need is not just the stuff of the conquest of space. It is the sense of our collective smallness in the universe, for some of our current troubles are also the products of our hubris. We thought, as the dominant species on the planet, that we could control far more than we should and can. Mother Nature and our complex societies are teaching us that we were wrong. In this sense, NASA's successes and tragic failures have reminded us not just of what we can accomplish but of how our accomplishments must be in harmony and not against forces greater than ourselves. NASA has lifted our hearts while at the same time anchoring us in humility. It has made us realize not only how amazing the universe is but that there is something more astounding than we are.
People who have lost their capacity to experience awe are a threat to themselves, to others and to the planet we occupy. A single picture from NASA's past -- of the blue-green earth floating in space as seen from the moon -- helped us realize the delicate nature of our life in the vast coldness above and fostered the environmental movement. It also helped us see that boundaries of geography, nation, ethnicity, race and religion are distinctions we make that have no meaning in the cosmos. We need more such moments.
In a recent interview for CBS Sunday Morning, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, himself a four-time shuttle crew member, including the crew that put Hubble into space, teared up as he talked about NASA's future after the shuttle. "In 1969 when humans walked on the moon, he said, "I want my granddaughters to see another human go to another heavenly body. So, yeah, you know, I get emotional about that, and I apologize."
He need not apologize. On the weekend Bolden spoke these words, more Americans went to see Hangover 2 than paid any attention to Endeavor's last flight. Collectively, they spent close to $100 million, setting a box office record. The film's world gross may well reach the cost of a shuttle mission ($450 million). The juxtaposition of these two events could not have been more symbolic. We all need comic relief of course, but we need cosmic wonder too.
Shastri Purushotma: Reflections on Outer Space and Our Inner Soul
Rick Tumlinson: More Bang for Buck Rogers
Bob Burnett: Lost in Space: The Decline of the American Spirit
Sadly, if you can't actually see the launch first-hand there is little awe inpiring about a lift-off. Shuttles were designed and built in the '70s, and Columbia first flew 31 years ago. The youngest shuttle is older than many HuffPo readers. All three remaining vessels have far exceeded their originally designed lifespan. To put the age of the orbiters into perspective, one of the early upgrades was to replace the original navigation computers with a bunch of IBM 386s! Realistically, why would a 20-something living in San Francisco feel any more awe about the latest shuttle launch than they do about some baby-boomer waxing romantic about his old Ford Galaxy 500? They've literally seen it 100 times on TV and have no knowledge of what these 100-odd launches have done for them.
Mercury, and Apollo were different. Space was new. It was groundbreaking. It was America doing the Impossible. It wasn't the same cardboard cutouts doing essentially the same thing for three decades. Even so, Apollo missions 18, 19 & 20 were unceremoniously cancelled in the early 70s. Those jaw-dropping Saturn Vs on display at Kennedy and Houston were meant to fly.
The Shuttle is not the only vehicle which flies to the ISS. It is the biggest and most expensive. It offers huge volume, upmass and downmass. The others which fly to it are smaller, much less expensive. We use the Shuttle to move up the big stuff which cannot fit into the other vehicles.
For a toilet fix, we'd likely grab space on a $70 million Progress launch.
Regarding awe, Wikipedia defines it as: “an emotion comparable to wonder but less joyous, and more fearful or respectful. In general awe is directed at objects considered to be more powerful than the subject, such as the breaking of huge waves on the base of a rocky cliff, the thundering roar of a massive waterfall…”
You want human-made awe, you got it, courtesy of Mother Nature and an arrogant/ignorant species (us). Here is how it looks:
Awesome earthquakes, followed by awesome tsunamis. Awesome tornados miles wide destroying entire cities, awesome floods, awesome windstorms, awesome drought. Not awesome enough? Try this:
Awesome starvation; awesome wars over depleted resources including food and water; untreatable awesome illnesses immune to any and all treatments; radical climate change to which we cannot adapt; and failure to reproduce due to a toxic environment. All of the above resulting in an awesome “reduction in population" (RIP): high death rate coupled with low birth rate, causing an awesome population reduction of billions of humans.
Perhaps NASA’s charter should be immediately changed to finding ways of adapting/surviving the results of radical climate change. Now that would be awesome.
Roy Mankovitz, Director
Montecito Wellness
A research organization
Paine told Abernathy that the advances in space exploration were child's play compared to the tremendously difficult human problems of the society, and told him that "if we could solve the problems of poverty by not pushing the button to launch men to the moon tomorrow, then we would not push that button."
Social spending is withering away as a priority.
because in fact it was cheaper to go to the moon than produce a movie about it.
Let's see. Maybe there's more of this kind. Could it be that the dark side of the moon would be the ideal place for a really really "bad bank"? I'm sure it's the place where a large chunk of the C-suites should be having their barbecue right now. Maybe that would be a lot cheaper than feeding those too big to fail dinosaurs on earth.
To me, the shuttle program and all the space programs that preceded it, were the ultimate expression of optimism. A belief in a better tomorrow.
Every society needs something to keep it pointed in the right direction....to keep it moving forward. To distract from the negatives that pervade daily life. There are probably many ways to do that.....but, when I watched Discovery lift from the launch pad on February 24th during a trip down to Florida, I couldn't but be inspired.
Wall Street/City of London has managed to forfeit America's man-moon space missions for bail outs.
Now the deficits, incurred from the ongoing bail outs, are used as an excuse to say: "..we don't have the money for space", just like the TSA uses 9/11 as an excuse to stick-hands-down-pants.
For those who thinks privitazing NASA is cute-n-funny, remember that Wall Street is only concerned about short-term profits and if they have to defraud people with derivatives they'll do it.
So Wall Street would never be interested in space before its development; just look at the City of London where Britain doesn't even have a space program and yet they're supposed to be '1st world'.
And it's not just going to space for the sake of space.
It's all of the scientific/technological developments, a true capital resource, that kept the United States a world economic leader and power house since the end of WWII, now we're not leading.
Holdren told Congress he doesn't even want the US to collaberate with China in space, rather, leave it up to them to lead the world so America continues to sink down to just another third-world country.
There is much NASA could do if we wanted to continue to lead the world in space travel. We need a modern, safer, easier to operate shuttle without a cargo bay to carry men into orbit and back down, and we need an unmanned heavy launch system that can put payloads into orbit for less per pound. Then we need more than one space station. With these in place, many possibities open up. If we don't do it, China will.
NASA has been both the greatest expression of man's achievement and the greatest disappointment of the last 50 years.