Posted on July 8th, 2011 by Ian Blackthorne
Today at 11:26 AM ET, weather permitting, the last launch of a US Space Shuttle will occur. Once Atlantis achieves orbit, the United States will have no way to get its astronauts to space, service existing satellites, or do anything but watch the other spacefaring countries pass by. The country that went from a suborbital flight to landing on the moon in just eight years will be buying rides to orbit from Russia.
Without the space shuttle, we certainly would not have been able to keep the Hubble Space Telescope operating for twenty years, or even at all, since it required immediate service after launch. We can only hope that the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the future James Webb Space Telescope operate perfectly for years to come since we’re retiring our only way to repair them. Although the shuttle has kept us constrained to low earth orbit for thirty years, it represents a unique capability that no other machine in the world can match, and will be a huge loss to science.
This point bears repeating: The United States is retiring the world’s only functional spaceplane. We are putting these incredible machines that represent an apex of science and engineering achievement into museums, without a suitable replacement waiting in the wings, and are losing a high point of national pride in the process. Although we definitely need to venture again beyond earth orbit, and likely have waited too long to do so, gutting our manned space program is not the right way to go about it. Thousands of jobs are being lost in Florida and Texas, and we’ll be again stuck in that flightless interim like we saw between Skylab and the space shuttle that cost NASA lots of talent.
It feels like the greatest accomplishment of mankind happened ten years before I was born, and I doubt that the men that walked on the moon will live to see that feat surpassed. The private sector will certainly soon provide low cost rides to the International Space Station, but beyond that, there is no direction, no clear goal to try to reach in spaceflight. President Kennedy famously set a deadline for landing on the moon, brazenly so when we had yet to even achieve orbit, and we achieved that goal. Now, almost forty years since the last moon landing, we’ve yet to do better, and without a bold statement of intent and the national desire to achieve, we’ll just fruitlessly spend money on undefined research.
When Columbia was lost in 2003, I wrote an editorial on the old CPA site, stressing that we should not stop flying into space because someone might get hurt. The astronauts all understand the risks and sign up anyway, and I would certainly join them in a heartbeat, given the chance. Unfortunately, it was that risk that doomed the shuttle program, based on the crew vehicle being beside the launch platform and not atop it like the capsule-rocket designs of the sixties. It seems that we’ve become a risk-averse society, unwilling to take a chance for great payoffs. While we should certainly take every step to minimize that risk, it can never be entirely eliminated from riding a bomb off the planet.
The public only seems to notice the space program when something goes wrong, and I doubt I’ll ever understand how it’s possible to not be awe struck by human beings leaving the planet. I’ve personally witnessed two space shuttle launches, and they were the most incredible experiences of my life. A spaceplane gracefully rises from the horizon, silently at first, on twin columns of fire so bright that they seem almost fake, and then an ocean of sound follows, swallowing you in a crashing wave. Most people go about their days without even realizing that this is happening, but they certainly care about the latest murder trial or celebrity scandal. Pay attention, America, and start idolizing human achievement instead of depravity!
All of that said, this is Atlantis that’s about to launch and consign the space shuttle program to the museums and history books. Our little sim’s namesake is about to retire, so let’s wish her a safe flight. Watch the launch if you can – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_TV has links to the online streams at the bottom. Go Atlantis, one last time, and make us all proud!
2 Comments
Ian Blackthorne says: I agree, and although what the private sector has accomplished is impressive, we’re still stuck without a ride to orbit. Just four percent of the national budget in the 1960s got us from zero to moon landing in eight years. Now that the general public (and thus, their elected representatives) care more about random murder trials than science and exploration, NASA has less than 0.4% of the budget. How much of an increase would be required to at least keep an operable shuttle fleet flying in the interim, while we build our next generation spacecraft? Considering what we accomplished almost fifty years ago, it can’t be that much.
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From T’Kirr’s husband:
What you said is a lot of what I have been thinking. I’ve witnessed three up close, and agree wholeheartedly. The one program that people can be proud of, no matter what side of the political spectrum, was destroyed but with the swipe of a pen.
Hopefully, the private sector companies, such as SpaceX, Space Adventures and Virgin Global will have that drive to go quickly and get us to new places. People need to go, we were designed to explore. I personally believe that part of the problem has been the way that, since the sixties or seventies, society in America has been all about emasculating men and since the thirties about keeping everyone in line. The effects are seen today, as a president decides that that need to explore just isn’t that important. The effects of the roads of entertainment and education that the government have decided to take for the last three quarters of a century are now taking effect.
I hate to get political explaining my view, yet it completely is. And the problem is on both sides: There is no dream in space for the politicians, and so they choose not to pursue it.
My only hope in this is that the private sector in taking it over will do what the cowards in office decided we don’t need, because that is exactly what we need.