The American space program has had its moments of pride as well as horrific pitfalls. It's endured many challenges although none as great as the recent declination of support from the government, in my opinion. While privatizing seems the best choice from an economical standpoint I do feel that we are, in a fashion, turning our backs on one of our greatest potentials and regulating it to a position of "history" rather than "future promise".
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962, at Rice University, Houston, Texas
Kennedy and many of his successors worked hard to sell the space program. They realized that it was a thing to take national pride in (as well as a leg up from a military aspect). I often wonder how he would feel about our current program if he were still alive today and how he would respond to America's need to "purchase space" from a foreign country in order to reach towards the stars.
How do you feel about the current state of the American space program?
