Congratulations to NASA for a perfect first test flight of America’s new Orion spacecraft! It’s exciting to get back on the road to space, especially since the end of the shuttle program.
However, I can’t help but lament how short of a distance we’ve come, and how much more slowly we’re getting there. It was on May 25, 1961, that president John F. Kennedy addressed the Congress and outlined the goal, before the decade was out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. America realized that goal on July 20, 1969–a mere eight years later. Orion, by contrast, won’t have its first manned flight test for another SEVEN years.
Eight years to reach the moon from scratch. Eight years to design and build not one, but TWO manned spaceflight programs–Gemini and Apollo. Eight years, even though an entire year was lost because of the tragic Apollo 1 fire. Eight years, and still we made it all the way to the moon.
Now it takes seven years just to begin manned trials of our new spacecraft.
With all the advances in technology, doesn’t this strike anyone else as kind of crazy? Back in the sixties, we didn’t have the technology we have today, nor did we have the expertise of fifty years experience with manned spaceflight. Why is it taking us so long to make much smaller steps today?
My guess is that Orion isn’t being given near the priority it deserves.
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2014
