23 April

Is NASA Losing the 'The Right Stuff'?

UNITED NATIONS — Renowned members of the American astronaut program, the U.S. Congress, and scientific community have warned that planned cuts and changes by the Obama Administration to the American space program “destines our nation to become one of second or even third rate stature.” In a scathing letter signed by 27 NASA veterans including Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11, James Lovell, commander of Apollo 13, Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, and Gene Kranz, legendary flight director, implored President Barack Obama to reconsider his “misguided proposal,” concerning the future of manned space flight.


The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is under political assault. NASA, which traces its roots to the Eisenhower Administration’s scientific “wake up call” from the Soviet Sputnik launch, and was later supercharged by President John F. Kennedy’s call for putting an American on the Moon “within the decade,” used to be the PR savvy, slick and “can do” agency which put cutting-edge science on the par with prestige and made American achievement almost a given.

Today after many setbacks and a minuscule 0.5 percent share of the burgeoning federal budget, NASA faces a future away from manned space flight to far more mundane programs.

As with so many other things, NASA now faces a new Obama “vision of change.”

I vividly recall the Lunar Landing on 20 July 1969. I viewed the Moon landing on a flickering Black and white TV on a cool Vermont evening. Years earlier, I remember that the first American in space (before John Glenn) was actually New Hampshire native Alan Shepard. Yet, I’m not one of that dwindling band who follows shuttle launches and landings with the rapt attention as Americas did in the 1960’s during projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.

But even during the heyday of NASA’s golden years, people incessantly yammered, “We are sending millions to the moon, why not use this for projects on Earth”? Good question. Now look at your computer screen where you may be viewing this article, do you have a mobile/cell phone or the internet? So much of this technology emerged as a result of the space program which miniaturized circuits and communications and subsequently made it affordable and available to the masses.

For example, even a decade ago the average car carried more on-board computer technology than the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

What the NASA cuts are about is not eliminating the space agency, nor even seriously cutting its $19 billion budget, but rather narrowing its vision and especially its horizons. The space program was always about horizons — not just going to the Moon and beyond, but about pushing both the geographic and philosophical horizon and political standing of the USA as a global player. This is what’s being trimmed and what’s being mortgaged.

Indeed the U.S space program has been a near singular player in manned space flight — really only the Russians have perfected this on a similar scale, and People’s China has relatively recently launched a number of successful flights. But let’s not forget that even the high tech European Space Agency (ESA), while successfully launching satellites, has never carried out a manned launch. Nor has Japan.

The cancellation of the Space Shuttle program, after three more missions, will cost 9,000 jobs. Ending the revamped Moon program may cost a further 20,000 engineering and scientific positions. Still Obama told a skeptical audience at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, “I am 100 percent committed to the mission of NASA and its future.” Really?

With the cancellation of the Space Shuttle program and scrapping the future Moon missions, is Obama now planning to outsource elements of manned space flight to the Russians? Shall astronauts go to the International Space Station via the Soyuz program? Are we losing our scientific and national security edge?

The famous movie “The Right Stuff” chronicled the early stages of the 1960’s space race with the Soviets, the gripping “Apollo 13” presented the saga of saving the near- disastrous 1970 mission. Both films projected the political and scientific vision which clearly characterized the space program a generation ago.

But today America is becoming less the land of scientific vision and more the land of earthly entitlements; less the land of pride and promise, and more the place of pedestrian programs.

The U.S. Capitol building stands majestically at the head of the Washington Mall, to its one side sits the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, an amazing assembly of flight from the Wright Brothers to the unique brotherhood of the Space Program. It’s a place which still celebrates “The Right Stuff.” Shall the “new” NASA be able to achieve the same?