Age of Atlantis

On this day in 2011, just a few short years ago, the Space Shuttle program ended when the shuttle Atlantis touched down at the Kennedy Space Center along the east coast of Florida. It is interesting that the day ending the US known manned space flight program would occur 42 years and one day after its pinnacle achievement of Apollo 11. Apollo 11 saw President Kennedy’s goal being met--sending a man to the moon and returning him safely to earth within the decade of the 1960’s. This would be a rather nondescript end to a program that came to be seen as a filler program. It was to be a program that would provide the insight to reach Mars. It was a program that never lived up to its expectations of regular manned space flight, as its peak year produced nine flights. The first shuttle, Columbia, was launched in April 1981, seeing the results of the early 1970’s announcement by President Nixon of the move to a reusable space flight vehicle. This, and the four other orbiters would make runs into space for a variety of reasons, with much of it related to assemblage, manning and provisioning the International Space Station (ISS).

Apollo Astronaut space suit

Named for the mythical, or lost city, the shuttle Atlantis conjures images of a can-do-attitude. A place where human kind reached a level for now which one may only dream. Perhaps, for the American manned-space program, Atlantis is a fitting metaphor. Apollo brought the country together at a time when social change was tearing it apart. Space flight would not become routine as the founders of the shuttle program would intend.

Space Shuttle Atlantis

Saying the manned space flight is ordinary belies the risks inherent into such a project. Of the five shuttles, two were destroyed in accidents beyond the reach of earth. The first of course was the Challenger explosion of 1986 in which seven persons died, one being a teacher. The other being Columbia, in which also seven persons died, but this tragedy occurred during reentry. Atlantis will have its day in history as the last of the group of five to fly. Of the men and women lost in the space program, the shuttle, also the longest running program, counted for 14, and the other three persons lost were in what is now known as Apollo 1, a test simulation. It was not accorded a flight status until sometime after its test explosion in 1967. As Jim Lovell is quoted in the movie Apollo 13, space flight can never be seen as routine.

Astronaut Jim Lovell in 1990's

Costs certainly were anything but routine. NASA has estimated the Shuttle program to have cost about $209 billion. The program never obtained the efficiency level it had desired due to certain aspects of not being reusable. Also, the program was designed in the 1970’s when material and computerization efforts were still rather Paleolithic compared to what is known 30 years later. Of course (in terms of monetary costs), it was less expensive, but not as daring as Apollo. Apollo costs were estimated by NASA in 1973 to have been $25.4 billion, and again estimated by NASA in 2005 to have a 2005 cost of $170.6 billion, or probably about the cost of the shuttle program in today’s dollars. In its day each Apollo launch was $375 million (say 1970 dollars) whereas Shuttle costs in (say 2010 dollars) was pegged at $1.6 billion.

One of the launch pads used for Apollo and Shuttle missions

As for now, the US plays second fiddle for manned space flights to Russia, and is dependent upon the Russian program to ferry astronauts to the ISS. They have a monopoly on that route, and being the good capitalist they are, using it to their full advantage. Elon Musk is working on a private venture for which the US can subcontract space flight to the private sector. Musk’s SpaceX venture to save costs, is doing much of its own manufacturing. And, it subject to the whims and fancy of congress for many states to get a piece of the action. On the other hand, SpaceX would likely not be where it is today without the pioneering work of the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle programs. These programs made advances that have well brought benefits to overall society.

SpaceX module

NASA now has to be content to focus on unmanned space exploration, whether it be to a planet in our solar system or beyond. the search for water continues. The search for life outside of planet earth goes on. The children of today will need to focus on a different set of heroes than the men with the right stuff. Hopefully, such people will be in areas beyond football and basketball, but in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities where human progress can be realized and admired. The nation needs pioneers

Pioneering has always been present in the history of the nation. It was seen in the Lewis and Clark expedition, which departed 210 years ago to explore the northwest part of the Louisiana purchase and attempt to find a water route to the Pacific. The nation seems to be at its strongest when it is on a quest for discovery. The nation cannot simply live in its past only idealizing the relics of our past Atlantis, and give up reaching for a dream. The question is what will be the next national mission of discovery?