Farewell To NASA's Shuttle Program

It's rather academic from a cursory point of view to deem NASA’s forays into the heavens as being wasteful, especially with such a huge budget funded with billions that could go elsewhere. This kind of thinking about mothballing the space program is gaining more traction because our Federal coffers are close to be emptied. Sometimes it is not the money or how cost effective this or that program is-sometimes it has to do with the trappings of being a Hegemon. Such a trapping was borne out of a sense of National pride and our space program was a direct result. We know the history of Sputnik and the panic it set off…causing the United States to match the Soviet’s voyages into the heavens.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="375" caption="Photo Credit: NASA"][/caption]

This was the Cold War era when we received the challenge from President Kennedy to place a man on the moon, so as to beat our ideological enemy, the Soviet Union. Having someone sky-walking and kissing the face of God was evidence of our being a Super Power-it’s like having street bragging rights but on sophisticated, supercharged level. How many of our elders we know that seem to convey a sense of pride…when speaking on exactly where they were when Armstrong walked on the Moon. It is not only the intangibles such as national pride, which was had from our forays into Space…but there were also many practical inventions that saw fruition. Lest we forget, because of our space program we had the inventions of virtual reality; medical imaging; advanced plastics; fire protection equipment; TV Satellite dish; smoke detectors; and light weight composites-these are but a few of the modern amenities we enjoy because of  NASA’s space program.

The current space shuttle mission will be our last flight; we are scheduled to use other means to get us to space. Part of the strategy is to use other countries space program to do, mostly, what we did with the space shuttles. Rockets now will be used for our military payloads, while the International Space Station will play a more prominent roll in our peaceful, scientific endeavors. I am certain that the wonks who decided on this new course, in the wake of we no longer having the means to be wasteful, as we were before, know that we can still maintain our edge in the niche space industry. So when you hear that catchy song from Bob Marley addressing the space program, take it as is…but know that if you dig deeper…there are positives associated with the space program, not-with-standing the lyrics from Bob Marley, which say, "them sailing on their ego trip…blast off in their space ship...they have no time for reality…no care for you…no care for me."