The Laughing Wolf

Happy Anniversary?

Yesterday marked a triumph of engineering, science, politics, and more. Yesterday was the day that humanity first set foot on the moon, back in 1969.

I remember that day well, as I was spending time in the Appalachian mountains where televisions were few and far between. Some friends up there invited us to their place to watch it on their TV. He was the man who had built a lot of our cabin for us, and she was my surrogate grandmother. Her son was like a big brother to me, and I miss them all very much.

That night was a night of history. It turns out that with the delays and such that by the time Armstrong made his step, that it was quite late. So late, in fact, that I have no problem putting this column out on the day the broadcast finished, rather than the day it began. For it barely began that day. That night was the latest our hosts had ever stayed up in their entire lives. We watched, we marveled, and we expressed our joy.

Those days are behind us now, and the promise made then has been squandered. There are many things that have happened to make it so, from Congressional short-sightedness to the sacking of the Germans and much of the NASA management they trained by Nixon. It has been a failure of will most of all.

We do have the chance to change this. Today, there are several commercial launch companies in the running: XCOR, Scaled Composites, Sea Launch are probably the top three. Other companies and opportunities are working as well, and we need to encourage them.

It is up to each of us to do what we can. It is up to each of us to renew the dream in ourselves, and to share it with others. It is up to each of us to let our congresscritters know how we feel and of the problems that are identified. It is up to each of us let the President and his staff know the same. It is up to each of us to find ways to encourage and support commercial space activities.

If we do so, the promise made that day can still come true. We can go to the stars, each and every one of us. Instead of a select class, each of us can have the chance if we want to take it.

So remember the anniversary, remember the promise, and work to make it true.

LW