Friday, December 30, 2011
There is nothing much to watch on tv this time of year, except for the millionth rerun of “It’s a Wonderful Life” (and who hasn’t seen that too many times?) so I pulled out some DVDs to watch recently. I decided to watch one of my favorite mini-series, “From the Earth to the Moon,” a dramatic retelling of the Apollo space program.
I love this series not only for the acting and the story, but for all the memories it stirs. The space program was of significant interest in my family. Many a morning I would wake up and find my parents watching television (something they never did in the morning). They were fascinated with the space program from the beginning. We always had Walter Cronkite on with those funny cartoons they used to demonstrate what was happening far over our heads. The entire program, of course happening against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, protests, hippies, and societal upheaval, was compelling. It was an extension of the cold war against Russia, something not a mere concept, but real. We had “stop, drop, and roll” drills in school and my parents were truly tense during the Cuban missile crisis.
With all of that going on, the space program was not only a source of national pride, when those words meant much more than rote language in a pledge of allegiance, but a thrilling adventure which the entire country went on. My parents’ generation fought world war II. The flag represented something much different to them than to my contemporaries. A sense of shared achievement was part of their experience. America had already conquered the world in many respects through the efforts of all Americans working together, now those same people, even many of those too young to have fought in the war were alive during it, were going to plant the American flag on the moon. Kennedy promised it.
It is impossible to appreciate now what kind of achievement it was to put men on the moon. Apollo 11 landed on July 20, 1969—42 years ago. Lindburgh flew across the ocean in 1927, 42 years before Armstrong walked on the moon. Think of how far we had come between ’27 and ’69 and compare it to what has happened since the final Apollo mission in 1972.
In 1969 many Americans had never been on an airplane (fares were exorbitant compared to now), but they watched their countrymen fly to the moon. We saw video from another planet (I know the moon is not a planet, technically, I am using some license here) in our living rooms, which, for many people had only had television for about 10-15 years. President Nixon made the longest-distance phone call in history at a time when we had to wait until Sunday nights to make a toll call because rates were cheaper. Computers were the size of buses and were programmed with a stack of punch cards. The onboard computer in the lunar module had less computing power than today’s $29.95 wristwatch.
I was actually out of the country when Neil Armstrong made his one small step, but I recall well watching intently on French television when they landed on the moon. The three Apollo 11 astronauts later had a ticker tape parade in Chicago, and I stood there with thousands of other, watching them drive by in a convertible, just a few yards away. Every subsequent journey to the moon was appointment television. I loved seeing Alan Shephard hit a golf ball, and watching that moon buggy tool around.
So it was with some sadness and dread that I read in today’s newspaper that China is planning to send astronauts (or whatever they call them) to the moon in the next six or seven years. Their space program is well underway, having already orbited the earth. They have no presidentially-mandated deadline so they will proceed deliberately, but I have no doubt that if the Chinese say they will send someone to the moon, that in the near future our flag will be joined by a red one. Of course, not only have we not been back to the moon, wasting our time circling the earth forever, building the most expensive hotel in history, we cannot even send a person into space. The space shuttle is no more, and our country has no rockets with which we can launch an astronaut to the space station. In terms of manned space flight, we have no more capacity than Suriname, Fiji, or Monaco.
I wonder what John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and the other space program veterans think of this. Our space effort has been derailed by the political process. Of course it is expensive and obviously there are a lot of problems which need federal funds. That was the case in the sixties, too. I suggest that will always be the case. Scientific advancement often has no obvious tangible benefits. And there will always be those who decry the use of funds to send people into space when those funds could buy lunches for hungry children, or medicine for ailing grandparents. But the benefits of a space program rest in the pride of a nation (although I doubt many people actually feel pride in their country anymore, they would rather demand benefits for themselves from politicians whom they mistrust), the enlightenment of humanity, and the advancement of technology. No one is occupying Cape Canaveral to demand any of those things.
Pandering to politics has removed our ability to follow-up on the greatest achievement in exploration in human history. The Chinese need not succumb to the petty demands of small-minded and loudmouthed protestors, for better and for worse. So the next footsteps on the moon will be Chinese ones. And then what?
I love this series not only for the acting and the story, but for all the memories it stirs. The space program was of significant interest in my family. Many a morning I would wake up and find my parents watching television (something they never did in the morning). They were fascinated with the space program from the beginning. We always had Walter Cronkite on with those funny cartoons they used to demonstrate what was happening far over our heads. The entire program, of course happening against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, protests, hippies, and societal upheaval, was compelling. It was an extension of the cold war against Russia, something not a mere concept, but real. We had “stop, drop, and roll” drills in school and my parents were truly tense during the Cuban missile crisis.
With all of that going on, the space program was not only a source of national pride, when those words meant much more than rote language in a pledge of allegiance, but a thrilling adventure which the entire country went on. My parents’ generation fought world war II. The flag represented something much different to them than to my contemporaries. A sense of shared achievement was part of their experience. America had already conquered the world in many respects through the efforts of all Americans working together, now those same people, even many of those too young to have fought in the war were alive during it, were going to plant the American flag on the moon. Kennedy promised it.
It is impossible to appreciate now what kind of achievement it was to put men on the moon. Apollo 11 landed on July 20, 1969—42 years ago. Lindburgh flew across the ocean in 1927, 42 years before Armstrong walked on the moon. Think of how far we had come between ’27 and ’69 and compare it to what has happened since the final Apollo mission in 1972.
In 1969 many Americans had never been on an airplane (fares were exorbitant compared to now), but they watched their countrymen fly to the moon. We saw video from another planet (I know the moon is not a planet, technically, I am using some license here) in our living rooms, which, for many people had only had television for about 10-15 years. President Nixon made the longest-distance phone call in history at a time when we had to wait until Sunday nights to make a toll call because rates were cheaper. Computers were the size of buses and were programmed with a stack of punch cards. The onboard computer in the lunar module had less computing power than today’s $29.95 wristwatch.
I was actually out of the country when Neil Armstrong made his one small step, but I recall well watching intently on French television when they landed on the moon. The three Apollo 11 astronauts later had a ticker tape parade in Chicago, and I stood there with thousands of other, watching them drive by in a convertible, just a few yards away. Every subsequent journey to the moon was appointment television. I loved seeing Alan Shephard hit a golf ball, and watching that moon buggy tool around.
So it was with some sadness and dread that I read in today’s newspaper that China is planning to send astronauts (or whatever they call them) to the moon in the next six or seven years. Their space program is well underway, having already orbited the earth. They have no presidentially-mandated deadline so they will proceed deliberately, but I have no doubt that if the Chinese say they will send someone to the moon, that in the near future our flag will be joined by a red one. Of course, not only have we not been back to the moon, wasting our time circling the earth forever, building the most expensive hotel in history, we cannot even send a person into space. The space shuttle is no more, and our country has no rockets with which we can launch an astronaut to the space station. In terms of manned space flight, we have no more capacity than Suriname, Fiji, or Monaco.
I wonder what John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and the other space program veterans think of this. Our space effort has been derailed by the political process. Of course it is expensive and obviously there are a lot of problems which need federal funds. That was the case in the sixties, too. I suggest that will always be the case. Scientific advancement often has no obvious tangible benefits. And there will always be those who decry the use of funds to send people into space when those funds could buy lunches for hungry children, or medicine for ailing grandparents. But the benefits of a space program rest in the pride of a nation (although I doubt many people actually feel pride in their country anymore, they would rather demand benefits for themselves from politicians whom they mistrust), the enlightenment of humanity, and the advancement of technology. No one is occupying Cape Canaveral to demand any of those things.
Pandering to politics has removed our ability to follow-up on the greatest achievement in exploration in human history. The Chinese need not succumb to the petty demands of small-minded and loudmouthed protestors, for better and for worse. So the next footsteps on the moon will be Chinese ones. And then what?
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