Nothing Ventured
Barr, Bob
C ontrary to the knowledge possessed by many Americans, whose view of the space program began with the 1986 Challenger explosion, that tragedy was not the American space program's first. Its...
...Note to NASA: it also rains in Florida...
...Actually, a proposed Shuttle launch—it was scrubbed at the last minute, not because a serious problem had suddenly developed, but rather because a minor glitch wasnoted—something that "could possibly" be a problem...
...This is a more insidious type of failure—a dream unrealized, a door never opened, and a future never known...
...Marie (still a fine singer, but hardly a reason to go to a space launch), and a program focused on cute anecdotes about the Shuttle crew...
...One of the most startling things about the Kennedy Space Center is the outwardly impressive Vehicle Assembly Building...
...The ceremony leading to the aborted Shuttle launch was dassic, modern-day America political correctness...
...During our tour we were told—again, most proudly—that a major reason for the new space station was to "track" endangered species...
...This is not my inexpert opinion—it was how the space center's head described it...
...For NASA today, it should be, "Risk is not an option...
...Apollo XIII's slogan—made famous in the movie of the same name—was "Failure is not an option...
...If we ran our military this way, we'd still be making carrier flight decks out of wood, but treating them with new and better water repellents than were available in the 1940s...
...In short, we did not drown ourselves in prolonged self-pity, nor did we change our approach to the world...
...You want to know the level of fear in which NASA employees operate...
...But that magnificent legacy is being squandered, lost in a sea of doubt, political correctness, and risk-aversion...
...Amid protracted mourning and flagellation, the entire space program came to a grinding halt...
...Recently I visited the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a Space Shuttle launch...
...Yet we dither here and yon, fretting over how we will be perceived by superpower wannabes, or by that most bloated and irrelevant of bureaucracies, the United Nations—as if their approval meant something...
...Remember, this is Florida, where nary a day goes by without some chance of lightning...
...It starts looking a lot less impressive...
...All this, even though the actual cause of the Challenger explosion was quickly determined to a high degree of certainty...
...And boasting about it...
...So we constantly invent phony challenges—we manufacture boogey men, so to speak...
...That's how little faith we had in our own capabilities...
...It is a blueprint for failure, not from a detour or a dead end...
...Less than a generation later, we handled the Challenger explosion in a very different manner...
...Otherwise, if it rains and the tiles absorb moisture, the entire spacecraft becomes too heavy to launch...
...space program—speak volumes about the America of the 1960s and the nation now facing the challenges of this new millennium...
...To waterproof the Shuttle's ceramic heat tiles, we were told—once again, with great pride—that before each launch, technicians in the VAB manually coat each and every one (there are thousands) with a Scotchguard-like substance...
...The guides told us proudly that "we" did it this way because that's the way it's always been done...
...You see this same approach to other problems...
...How did we get to this point...
...The differing manner in which our nation responded to these tragedies—and the resulting effects on the U.S...
...Following the Apollo I fire—whichclaimed the lives of three brave astronauts, Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White—the government immediately began an investigation, determined the cause of the tragedy, fixed the problem, and launched the first successful Apollo capsule, just nine months later...
...There is no one and nothing to challenge us...
...Instead of the wonders of science and the challenges of space, we were treated to an Indian dance (hopefully not rain), a song by 1960s recording artist Buffy St...
...The touchy-feely era of America's space program has arrived...
...Its predecessor occurred nineteen years earlier, almost to the day—the Apollo I fire, January 27, 1967...
...At the Kennedy Space Center, warning signs pasted on doors leading to the outside world advise: "DO NOT GO OUTSIDE IF THERE IS LIGHTNING...
...space program with unequaled pride—real pride in real achievement, against tremendous odds...
...The Shuttle program was halted entirely for nearly three years, and other aspects of our space program were dramatically altered simply because we feared there might be another explosion in the future...
...As a baby boomer who grew up marveling at the X-15, the Mercury astronauts, the Gemini explorers, and the Apollo giants, I remember the U.S...
...One crew member was canonized simply because some of his ancestors are American Indian...
...We could, for example, fairly easily and quickly neutralize the challenge that is Saddam Hussein...
...president today to restate John E Kennedy's bold "We will send a man to the moon and return him safely to the earth within the decade few would listen, much less believe it could be done...
...The America of four decades ago was bold and brave, actually relishing the risks of new endeavors and equal to any challenge man or nature might throw at us...
...The fact is, however, without a constantly and aggressively articulated vision by our national leaders, the resources will not be made available because the case for their need is not being made...
...Indeed, were a U.S...
...No mention of mankind as endangered, if new resources are not found...
...Massive cranes and Rube Goldberg-type gantries hook boosters and Shuttles together-1950s technology, applied to a 1990s problem, in 2002...
...Much of it, counterintuitively, may be the result of our being the only superpower left...
...We dealt with the situation by picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off, fixing the problem, moving on, and not looking back...
...The America of twenty years later—and even more so now, in 2002—was a nation unsure of its strength or its resolve to use it, always looking for the least-risky option, whether in war or peace...
...Instead of giant leaps for mankind, we take halting baby steps, afraid of our shadow...
...Yes, part of the problem is that neither the Congress nor successive presidents have put sufficient resources into the program...
...Political correctness even creeps into the explanation of why we have a space program—as if meeting the challenges of space is something shameful...
Vol. 36 • January 2003 • No. 1
