Space - A Commentary.

(ed. note – when events not having anything particularly relative to the mission of the Madison Conservative blog, there are nonetheless times when issues of public policy demand a comment. This is one such instance.)

The United States took a major step towards mediocrity this week and the American people should take close notice.

On Thursday July 21^st the shuttle Atlantis touched down on the Shuttle Landing Facility's Runway 15 at 5:57 a.m. EDT, effectively ending the United States’ 50 year history of manned space flight. The shuttle program had its detractors from the beginning given that the shuttle design was more a design by committee, focusing on the costs and business abilities attached to the shuttle design. It was conceived as a ‘space truck’ that could bring man and supplies into space, establishing first a space station, eventually transitioning to adding construction capabilities for extended space flights to our planetary brethren. We are now abdicating that ability to do either of those goals.

The shuttle programs’ successes and failures will be undoubtedly debated by historians for decades and centuries hence, but the underlying reality is that it was a critical sense of  continuity from the first Mercury program, then to Gemini and then the moon flights of Apollo, a link in what should have been the uninterrupted progress of Americans in the final frontier.

The societal benefits achieved can also be debated, but must also be acknowledged. This blog is being written on a computer that is infinitely more sophisticated in its computing power than that which was aboard the Apollo 11 mission that first put a man on the moon, yet the space program made this computer possible.

Our elected officials spew forth diatribes about how American students are lacking behind their contemporaries from other countries in the essential disciplines of math, science and engineering. These national leaders have forgotten the awe that fueled the imagination and inspired a generation immersed in the space race. It is difficult to inspire the imagination when those dreams will necessitate first refining ones’ hitchhiking skills – “Using your Thumb 101”.

This goes beyond that, however.

We have national security components and devices currently in orbit. Should they need attention or repair, we are not properly able to attend to those needs. We will need to schedule and pay for a ride with countries that do not necessarily have our national interests at heart.

The nation that brought together the best and brightest to attain that which millennia of people had long thought impossible, landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth,  is now relegated into bumming a ride.

This is unacceptable.

Politicians and their media flacks blather on about green technologies. Those technologies would be given their proper attention in the scientific mind, as such technologies would be necessary for near and deep space exploration. The fuel cell is a perfect example of that reality. Who could completely perceive what benefits could be gleaned from a renewed space exploration program.

America is a beacon of freedom around the world. We cannot, must not abdicate our responsibility for leadership by voluntarily withdrawing from the exploration of the heavens.

We must return to manned space flight immediately, lest we relegate ourselves to being but a mere footnote in the accomplishments of man.