These words of hope are courtesy of Canadian in USA.
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My wife and I took the week of Memorial Day and did a tour of central and south Florida. Flying into Orlando, we rented a car and drove down the Gulf coast to Key West, and then back up the Atlantic side back to Orlando. We stopped along the way to spend a night or two in different locations so we could see and experience the various sights.
One of our stops was the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL. I’ve always been a fan of the American Space Program: my grade five speech was on the Apollo 11 moon landing, and I watched many Space Shuttle launches on TV (including the first launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia). So, the NASA Kennedy Space Center was a must on my list.
I was fortunate to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor up close in California. I talked to one of the Shuttle’s engineers about many different subjects and, after our discussion, I left with the feeling that there wasn’t any new space projects in the wings.
Add to that NASA’s current “mission” as directed by our current President, I honestly felt it would be a long time before we see America in the forefront of the Space program.
As my wife and I walked onto the grounds of the Kennedy Space Center, the first place we visited was the exhibit for the Space Shuttle Atlantis. We originally thought we would only go and see the Shuttle for an hour and then move on. However, walking into the pavilion, we were awestruck by the many pictures that adorned the walls. Each picture included a quote from different people involved in the Shuttle program – from engineers to launch personnel. Each of them talked about the marvel of a spaceship that would be launched into space, land on a runway, and be reused over and over again. One couldn’t help but get a feeling of pride walking through the hallways leading up to the display and think, “Yeah, America built that!”. While we commented on how amazing the Shuttle program was, we both wondered if we’d ever see anything like that again.
And then, we were shown into a room where we saw a movie re-enacting the inception of the Shuttle program in 1969 – everything from the idea of a “reusable” spaceship; the planning on how to get it into space: the testing of different materials and designs; dealing with various setbacks…
Then, we were lead into a second room to see a second movie about the Shuttle’s proud history. I won’t give much away because, if you ever get a chance to go, SEE IT! Let me put it this way: THE FEELS! Oh, my gosh – the feels! The many school kids in attendance watched transfixed. Those of us in attendance who grew up watching the shuttle program were all wiping tears from their eyes – including the men.
And then the reveal of Atlantis…it was absolutely magical.
We spent three hours in that pavilion.
(One other notable highlight of the pavilion was a wonderful memorial to the crew members lost in both the Challenger and Columbia disasters. Inside, there was a quote from President Ronald Reagan:
“The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.”
In the afternoon, we boarded a bus that took us around the grounds of the Space Center. As the bus drove around the grounds, a series of short videos explained the various sites, buildings and equipment. We drove past the two Shuttle launch pads – both with their “Trollers” sitting idly by – as well as the building known as “Launch Control”.
Afterwards, we drove to a pavilion for the Saturn V rockets used in the Apollo space program. We watched a movie about the history of the Apollo program. Then, we were lead into the actual control room that was used in the Apollo 8 launch (the first Apollo mission to fly around the moon and back). A simulated launch of Apollo 8 gave views an understanding of what happens during a rocket launch.
We walked through the rest of the pavilion, and I took many photos of the Saturn V rocket that was on display,
So much proud history of America’s space program. I still kept wondering, “Where is it going now?”
It was on the bus ride back that I got my answer:
Orion.
NASA has already begun “the Orion Project” – a project to build a configurable rocket to meet the needs of any mission. There are plans to go back to the moon – not just for a few hours or days, but for weeks! There is also talk of an Orion launch to send astronauts on a two-year mission to Mars.
If all goes according to schedule, we should be seeing launches of Orion rockets in 2020.
In addition, with partnerships with Boeing and SpaceX, NASA is working to build vehicles to send people and supplies to the International Space Station.
So, I left the Kennedy Space Center feeling that America’s space program is not dead. While the rest of the world launches rockets into space, America is planning it’s next major project with bigger ambitions than before.
When announcing the Apollo project, President Kennedy said, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”
I left feeling like America is going to win that challenge again.
