I was just a little kid when President Kennedy challenged America with a great vision of going to the moon…45 years ago this weekend, President Kennedy’s vision came to be. I sat and watched that live on the black and white TV at my house fed by a rooftop antenna, and listened to Walter Cronkite talk about it. I grew up during the space program. I knew all the astronauts by name in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. I watched every launch and touchdown unless I was in school, and most of those we watched at school. There were critics then and now of the space program, but I believe it’s one of America’s great legacies and for us to slash the space budget is short sighted and unfortunate. If you or a loved one had laser surgery, had a heart cath, been guided by your GPS while on vacation, used a cell phone, used a computer, watched live televised events from around the world, had steel radial tires on your car, or used a dust buster, you owe it to the space program. Those and thousands of other benefits have happened because we went to space. The remarkable contributions to our comfort and safety and our way of life because of the space program are reason enough to restore it, but another reason to continue is because exploring and learning is a God given drive that we should cultivate, not cut. The cures to Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and diabetes, may well be discovered in the next efforts of the space program. Our astronauts are true heroes. And everyday we live better because of them.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 17:00:00 +0000
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