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The Toledo Blade

Article published October 2, 2008

NASA at 50


America has no choice but to find the will and the money to design and build the next generation of spaceships

THE National Aeronautics and Space Administration turned 50 this week, its five decades marked by both notable achievements and sometimes spectacular failures. As America's space agency enters its sixth decade, it finds itself at a crossroads of sorts: What will the future of American space exploration look like?

NASA was a child of the Cold War, born in October, 1958, in response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik a year earlier. For its first 14 years it had, essentially, just two missions: close the space gap with the Soviets and be the first to put a man on the moon. NASA scientists met those goals and in doing so put a U.S. stamp on at least our small corner of the universe. And Americans loved it, sitting glued to their TV sets as a procession of heroes from John Glenn to Neil Armstrong went, in the words of a popular television show of the time, "where no man has gone before."

After the last moon landing in 1972, however, NASA's mission changed. "One great leap for mankind" was replaced by the more workmanlike space shuttle and construction of an international space station. It was a worthy goal but lacked the glitz and glitter of the race for the moon.

Predictably, public interest waned and the space program attracted attention only when something went wrong, as it did with the Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003.

Despite contributions made not only to our knowledge of the universe but to the development of GPS navigation systems, cell phones, computers, and a host of other consumer products, not even Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit - still collecting data four years after scientists thought they'd only be collecting Martian dust - have been able to hold the attention of a public distracted by joblessness, high fuel prices, and record mortgage foreclosures. As a result, even though NASA is again preparing for manned moon missions with an eye toward a permanent lunar station and future manned missions to Mars, Congress wastes almost as much each year on earmarks ($16 billion) as it allocates the space agency ($17 billion), and there is no public outcry to do more.

And yet we must. America has no choice but to find the will - and the money - to design and build the next generation of spaceships, and it must do so even as it solves the current financial mess, reinvigorates the economy, and defends against terrorism.

Otherwise, space will become the province of nations that have the will, nations - like China - whose self interest may not coincide with ours. And if that happens we will not only lose the lead in space exploration but also the technological advantage that has buttressed our standing as the pre-eminent world power.

NASA either turned 50 years old this week or 50 years young. It's up to us to decide.