One Giant Leap

For most Americans of the time, it probably all began in 1957 when the first artificial satellite, Russia’s Sputnik I, soared through the nighttime skies and initiated the “space race” in earnest. It was the technological embodiment of the cold war: who could get to space first and who could go the farthest. Perhaps, for the first time, space caught the imagination of the American public and our dreams turned skywards. In 1962 John Stewart, of the Kingston Trio, penned and sang the following lyrics which were representative of that new American dream:
“Some to the rivers and some to the sea
Some to the soil that our fathers made free
Then on to the stars in the heavens for to see
This is the new frontier, this is the new frontier.”
Then on July 20, 1969, thirty-six years ago this week, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon and uttered those now famous words, “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Indeed, it was a giant leap. Several other missions followed and then we simply stopped going to the moon. It was too far, too dangerous, and the technology didn’t yet exist to remain there for extended time periods. We moved into the “shuttle” phase of space history, manning Skylab for a time and now the International Space Station. However, the NASA space shuttle program has suffered two huge setbacks, most recently in the loss the shuttle Columbia. The launch of the new shuttle, Discovery, has been plagued by numerous delays, but hopefully it will finally depart next week on July 26th. We haven’t been to the moon since the 1970’s, nor has there been much talk of visiting Mars anymore. So the “new frontier,” which seemed utterly within our grasp such a short time ago, looks as if it will remain an unexplored frontier, at least from the standpoint of human visitation. For the time being, we simply lack the political will and funding to pursue those dreams of space beyond the orbit of the International Space Station. Yet, I believe our younger generation needs to see men walking on the moon again. That amazing moment in 1969 represents, in my opinion, one of the greatest human achievements. Young people deserve that kind of emotional and technological victory because, three decades later, moon travel just seems like another scene from a movie, and an old movie at that. True, the cold war and space race are over, but I say we must go back … because mankind could use another giant leap just now.