SIC TRANSIT GLORIA . . .

At 5:56 today the Space Shuttle, Atlantis, made its last voyage and the American manned space program effectively came to an end. It began when the United States was being challenged by the Soviet Union for world domination, and we accepted it, despite the hardships it might bring, because we were “America,” and we could do anything. We hurled men into space in tiny capsules, watched an American Flag unfurled on the Moon, and mourned as brave men and women lost their lives as we took out first steps into the “last frontier.” Today, the space program that ignited the imagination of three generations of Americans and inspired the world has come to an end. It ended quietly, handing the torch or world leadership off to others – nations on the rise.

Congress and the Obama Administration seem to have decided it is too hard and expensive for America to remain a spacefaring nation. Instead, it is likely that the next flag on the moon will be Chinese or Russian. There will be a flag on Mars, also, but you may need a Chinese passport to go there. Space seems to have become another Viet Nam for the U.S.; we won all the battles, but lost the war because we lost the will to win.

Speaking at Rice University in 1962, President Kennedy said of the space program, “we do [these things] “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” Throughout the 20^th Century, we led the world from darkness to light; it became known as The American Century. We were the beacon shining upon a hill; the “last best hope” for a troubled world. Are the Americans of the 21^st Century no longer willing to lead because it is hard? Are we now willing to abdicate our leadership to other nations because the bill is too high or politicians’ individual political ambitions are more important than our children’s future?

Let’s be clear about the reason we have had a space program. People climb into imperfect machines and lift tenuously into space just as others climbed into imperfect machines and lifted into the air at the beginning of the last century, and others before them climbed into imperfect machines and sailed across uncharted oceans labeled, “Here be Dragons,” by mapmakers because we have to. Curiosity, the urge to discover and the drive to explore, is the difference between humanity and all lower animals. It is not the result of our humanity, it defines it. We are the animal that climbs over the crest of the next hill to see what is there. We climb that hill, even when those who went before us never returned. We climb that hill because to do anything else is to deny our very nature, and to be less than we are – less than human.

We, or others, will continue our journey into space. There will be a flag fluttering in the Martian breeze now, or in a hundred years. We don’t know if it will be American, Russian, Chinese, or UN, but there will be a flag there, and it will be Human. We cannot deny our nature, and it is our nature to dream. We cannot deny our destiny, and it is our destiny to explore. We cannot deny our future, and it is our future to cross the vast expanse of space, and expand our horizons to other planets in the Solar System, and then to the stars.

I am proud to look up as we climb that ladder to the stars. I wish I were among those whose destiny it is to explore, but even if I am not, I am human, and so a part of the adventure.