Well, it looks like our Apollo 11 moon landing back in 1969 might have been a case of "winning the battle, but losing the war". There are only two shuttle launches left, and NASA isn't even accepting astronaut applications. These days, American astronauts are spending at least six months out of each year in Russia, training with Russian astronauts. Private companies, such as Virgin, are also getting into the business of space travel. As a "space psychologist" quoted in the article says, "imagine John Glenn or Alan Shepard speaking Russian.
So, many of us have said over the years that the U.S. won the Space Race, but that seems to have been premature. I know next to nothing about the history and the future of space travel, but it looks like the Russians are still going strong, at least compared to us. Obama's cancellation of Constellation, as well as this development, in a way, symbolizes the pending collapse more poignantly to me than most events.
No comments:
Post a Comment