On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. I’ll never forget the fascination and pride I felt that night. I still marvel at NASA’s inspiration, courage, creativity, teamwork and persistence. That was the greatest leap man has taken in my lifetime and brought the people of earth together like never before or since.
Much of the technology we enjoy today came from the R&D that went into the space program – areas such as communications, miracle materials, medical breakthroughs and advances in safety.
But soon after the landing, the social engineers began arguing that we should direct our resources on poverty and education, not exploration. Their short vision won, and now, forty years later, we have more poverty and ignorance than ever… and little progress in space exploration. People also said we should explore the oceans instead of space. We needed to do both; we did neither.
As Charles Krauthammer said in his recent column about the moon landing: we came, we saw, we retreated.
Too bad. Quitting was a big mistake.
But who knows... maybe I’ll live to see man land on Mars.
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