In space, no one can hear you whimper


The Atlantis astronauts awoke this morning to an appropriate song: I Used To Rule the World.

No doubt the irony was unintentional, but it's hard to miss. The current Atlantis mission is the last U.S. manned space mission planned. President Obama's cancellation of the Constellation program leaves us without the means to put astronauts into orbit, and NASA astronauts will have to hitch-hike with the Russians for the foreseeable future.

We used to rule the world- or at least space. Now, we have effectively taken ourselves out of the manned spaceflight picture, and Barack Obama's legacy will be, among other things, the image of the Chinese flag being planted on the surface of a moon that is now, thanks to him, beyond our reach.

Given the exponentially greater return in revenue than the expenditure and the virtually unprecedented explosion in jobs created by the Apollo program, a bold decision by the Obama administration to stage a crash program to return to the noon and then to go to Mars could have been exactly what our ailing economy needed.

Instead, the era of American space flight that began with the mission of Alan Shepard and Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961 will end with the landing of Atlantis on July 20. What began with a bang will end with a whimper.

Thanks a lot, Mr. President.

LEFT: The Chinese Long March-5 family of rockets, which will take taikonauts to the moon. Unlike the Ares booster canceled by the Obama administration, the Long March-5 is well into development.

Comments

Nancy Ulrich said…
It's been a wonderful ride. I was one of the lucky ones who was able to participate in the building of the space shuttle Endeavour. Meeting the astronauts and just being involved in the day to day NASA experience was wonderful.

However, I do have faith in American private enterprise. Let a million passenger rockets fly! Ad Astra per Prospera.
Nancy, while I also think that American private enterprise can do great things, it doesn't have the resources a government does. Nor is the prospect of immediate profit sufficient to do what needs to be done.

While I'm sure that the day will come when the American private sector will be able to complete with the Chinese and Russian and Indian and European public sector, that time is probably decades away. I'm very much afraid that, as a practical matter, President Obama's decision to trash Constellation and turn manned space flight over to the private sector will effectively make the United States a second-rate space faring nation for at least a generation.