Jul 082011
I’m a little disappointed that I missed the launch of the final space shuttle mission (YouTube video here). The shuttle program’s start back in the early 80s coincided with my own burgeoning interest in space and science fiction. It was the embodiment of all my childhood dreams about space travel and exploration. It was also a touchstone for my coming of age. Like a lot of people in my age cohort, the destruction of Challenger is one of my most vivid memories from childhood. As I grew older, I stopped paying much attention to shuttle launches and so did most other Americans. The shuttle program, despite its tragedies, made space exploration seem routine and a little boring. Now it’s gone and the future of manned spaceflight is in serious doubt. NASA boasts of plans for a Mars mission, but America doesn’t seem too interested in interplanetary travel just for the sake of proving it can be done. That may change someday and other nations may invest more in spaceflight in the meantime, but we’re probably witnessed the end of a recognizable American space program for quite some time.
Being of the generation before you, my memories were of the original Mercury and Gemini and Apollo missions. I had a plastic space helmet with a visor that lifted and a kazoo-like “microphone” built into the helmet that kind of buzzed like the original audio transmissions when you spoke into it. I constructed my space capsule out of big cardboard boxes laying on my back with my legs bent to take up less space. I watched all of the launches with Walter Cronkite and the rest of the country. I had plans of being an astronaut but asthma and my less than militaristic ways got in the way of my space plans. Cie la vie!