Following the first
lunar landing of Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969, James Arthur Lovell, the future
commander of the famous Apollo 13 was credited with saying: “From now
on, we live in a world where man has walked on the moon. It's not a miracle, we
just decided to go.”[1] There is no doubt that, in the scope of human
history there has been nothing like the moon landings achieved by Project
Apollo in the late sixties. In the span of just a few years, humanity
accomplished the landings not once, but six times. The technologic, economic
and political development generated by this endeavor in such a short time
changed humanity at its core. Today, there seems to be many people that cannot
imagine life without a smartphone or the internet, without knowing both
technologies are rooted in the moon missions more than many would imagine. But
while the progress in science and technology cannot be doubted, the space
program had more merit than meets the eye. Like any powerful endeavor of large
magnitude, the national space program was created to serve as a strong
political tool.
As historic as Commander Lovell’s words were in 1969,
so were President Nixon’s words uttered in 1972 as Apollo 17 left the moon to
return home. Nixon said: “this may be the last time in this century that men
will walk on the moon.” [2]
Nixon’s prediction was to become truer than anybody would have ever imagined:
no man has ever returned to the moon since 1972. As soon as the goal to win the
space race was accomplished, space exploration became politically secondary in
importance. Nixon cancelled any plans for further lunar missions and a Mars
landing, announcing the space shuttle program instead, a program aimed to
explore the low earth orbit only. Funding decreased exponentially, and while
each Administration continued to utilize space for its political purposes, the
magnitude of the Apollo Project was never repeated again. Recalling the
technological, economic, and political impact of Apollo on humanity, it is fair
to claim that not repeating the episode is unfortunate and a step backwards for
humanity. Living in a world where man has walked on the moon should infer the
capability not only remained at hand, but it improved considerably. Given the
Apollo accomplishments in less than a decade, there is no surprise that after
the moon landings, people envisioned colonizing the moon, and then landing a
man on Mars in a couple of decades. However, five decades after Apollo, the
United States not only did not colonize the moon or land on Mars, but it has
lost human spaceflight capabilities entirely. It currently depends on Russia to
fly astronauts to the International Space Station.[3]
What happened?
Recent history has demonstrated that the success of
the U.S.
civil national space program is seemingly dependent on political support. Since
there is an alleged positive correlation between political support and funding the
national space agency, politics must be the main factor taken into
consideration when planning space missions. If the national space program is
primarily a political tool, then its development depends on the political
trends of the moment. Therefore, it is important to determine what makes the
U.S. national space program, primarily its human spaceflight component
politically important and what level of political support would be necessary to
maintain and sustain a thriving space program.
[1] Tom Hanks, Apollo
13, Motion Picture, directed by Ron Howard (1995, Universal City , CA
[2] Logsdon, John M. 2014. "Why did the United
States Retreat from the Moon?" Space Policy 30,
no. 1: 1-5. doi:10.1016/j.spacepol.2014.12.001 (accessed
February 19, 2015), 1.
[3] Logsdon, John M. 2011. "A new US
