Gunpowder Chronicle posted on August 10, 2007 11:26 PM | Rating:
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With the news that the newest shuttle in the fleet -- Endeavour -- has a gouge in its heat shield, I think it is time to ground this white elephant. Space exploration should move on, but the nonsense of a re-usable orbiter is long since been proven stupid.
NASA has long known that interest in the space program is based largely on the Wow! factor. We went to the moon largely because of John Kennedy's vision, and because it was a clever way to hide ballistic missile research. Once we had gotten to the moon, the shine started to come of that penny. The last Apollo mission -- Apollo 17-- was in 1972, and we haven't left low earth orbit in 35 years.
Skylab was largely a failure, it's reentry burn more captivating than its mission.
The first shuttle launch and mission was exciting -- I remember seeing Columbia land in a cafeteria packed with elementary school kids at Loch Raven Elementary. But everything else was ho-hum.
We need to dare to dream big in space. We need to put men (and women) on the moon -- permanently. Not as some sort of extraterrestial colony, but as our first real step into space. Forget Mars for now. Let's go back to the moon.
Who knows, maybe it can replace Guantanamo.