surface of the Moon first, as previously planned. But the simple fact
is, we have been there before..." - President Obama, April 15, 2010.
And with that, my friends, the dream has died. Yes, Mr. President, we
have been there before. And we could not go back today, tomorrow or in
the next 5 years, even if we wanted to. The US threw away its
technological advantage and all the lessons it had learned in Apollo,
and built the shuttle. We've been circling in LEO for the next 30
years, losing 14 brave astronauts in the process... And now we throw
shuttle away too, so we can "research technology" until 2015?
Since it's looking more and more like Obama will be a one-term
President, guess who will not be making that future decision? So we
kick the can along to the next administration, who can once again
reconsider, change course, end the program of record, and the endless
cycle of minimum progress with maximum effort can begin again.
This nation has lost the ability to dream, to accomplish grand
projects, to lead the technological world. An entire generation of
knowledge is about to walk out the doors of KSC and MFC, just like
Apollo. An entire generation of kids will again be stuck thinking of
space only in science fiction novel terms, "maybe in a few centuries
we can do that". The long term "plan" discussed today is a plan in
name only. No rocket. No vehicle. No destination. No concrete
timetable. No dream. No vision. We may very well "have been there
before" - but the fact we cannot dream of going back speaks volumes.
No comments:
Post a Comment