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 F. David Shelene Apr 29, 2003 The Space Shuttle Columbia’s loss has put us all into a state of shock. To burn up on re-entry was every astronaut’s greatest fear and the unthinkable has finally happened. Now there is talk of cutting back on NASA’s budget and rethinking the manned space program completely. Before we do that, we must look at what out goal was, and still is. In a word, it is exploration. We American’s have always been explorers but thank goodness we aren’t the only ones or there would be no United States. Exploration has been dangerous since one of Adam and Eve’s offspring decided to get far enough away from mom and dad to stay out later at night. It always will be dangerous. As someone in Vegas would probably say, “It’s the nature of the game.” You can’t halfway do a good job. Instead of moving backward, we need to surge forward. President John F. Kennedy said in his address at Rice University in Houston on the Nation's Space Effort September 12, 1962, “Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward. So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward-- and so will space.” William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprise and overcome with answerable courage.” We can never be discouraged by failure. No accomplishment worth anything has ever come without risk, and failure before success. In his speech, President Kennedy also said, “The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space.” If we expect to stay in our position as a leader of nations, we must surge ahead with greater determination than ever before, to explore and discover the secrets of space. We in America have two things many in our world are jealous of: Freedom and Power. It is sad to say, but the country with the greatest technology, is going to be able to retain the things that are most valuable to them, and will be able to assist others in need. If a not so friendly country with an oppressive ruler becomes the world’s leader in technology, where will that leave those that he is jealous of? We must build more space ships, not less. We must develop new types of spacecraft that will be able to discover new things such as elements that we have never known of. Who knows, the cure for cancer may lie several million miles from earth? No place is too far unless you can’t get there. The world benefits from our space technology every day because we share some of the things we learn with others. We send people from all nations into space with our program. Sadly, one of the astronauts on board Columbia was from Israel. Let’s make sure he and others who have died in space exploration have not died in vain. Airliners crash every year. If we had built only 5 airliners we would have no airliners now. I believe space exploration will expand by leaps and bounds whenever someone discovers a way to make money in space. This is the way most other giant leaps in exploration have taken place. The other way giant leaps in exploration and technology have taken place is during wartime. We just went through Iraq like a knife through butter because of our advanced technology and the superior training our people receive, (also due to advanced technology in some cases.) We do not want to see advances come through war. The war with Iraq would still be going on if our technology were equal to theirs. It would also cost many thousands more lives as we slugged it out the old fashioned way as demonstrated in the Iran/Iraq war. This war went on for seven years with nether side gaining an advantage. I hope and believe that someday there will be a way discovered to make large sums of money in space. Until that happens, we must give NASA and others the funds they need to continue to build our space program SAFELY, and steadily. ------------ F. David Shelene is a member of the Wood County Democrat Executive Committee and have served as a delegate to the State Democratic Convention where he served on the resolutions committee. He has served as a political activist for quite a few years attending and helping organize rallies in many parts of the country including Washington D. C. Email F. David Shelene: fdshelene@freelancewriters.com Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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