On 7/21/06, Doug Franklin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > P. J. Alling wrote: > > When, JFK announced the program to send a man to the moon and return him > > safely in 10 years, it happened. Not long ago NASA was asked how long > > it would take to return to the moon. The reply was 20 years. Makes you > > wonder what's happened to NASA. Well no not really. If we gave the > > current space budget to Burt Rutan. We'd probably have space colonies > > with scheduled commercial flights in 10 years. > > >From my jaundiced view, the difference is that the entire nation isn't > "behind" that sort of effort now. They're too busy getting their > half-caf decaf mocha chino bullshit.
Let's not forget, we (The West, including Canada) were in a cold war against the Evil Empire of the Soviet Union. Getting to the moon first was an important propaganda tool; it proved that Truth, Justice and the American Way would prevail. America was stung badly by early Soviet space successes: first Sputnik then Gagarin. Those Russian coups were, I believe, the impetus behind JFK's pronouncement about getting a man to the moon and back by the end of the decade. Of course, his assassination only served to inspire the nation to make his promise good. The other thing to consider is that there was a military component to the space race. The fear was that if the evil Russians got to the moon first, they'd militarize it. If the Americans didn't get there first, no telling what those filthy commies would do with the moon. It certainly is no co-incidence that the space programme was largely a military effort... cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
