The boy and his rocket ship....

 

 

I miss the Earth so much, I miss my wife

It's lonely out in space

On such a timeless flight

Elton John

Rocket Ship

 

 

Every night, when the young boy went to bed after brushing his teeth and saying his prayers, he would look out his window and wonder. The sky would often be inky black allowing him to see thousands of stars in the "astro canopy". In his mind, he could visualize himself in a rocket ship traveling to a far off planet to visit strange lands and see strange sights. He knew it was possible - before bushing his teeth every night he would read a chapter in one of his Tom Swift books. Some of his books were read so much the bindings were starting to fray. That was okay however, as Tom Swift was his hero.

 

As the young boy grew, he found out one of his neighbors was a professor of Astronomy at the local University. The professor built a huge telescope in his back yard - one of the largest back yard telescopes west of the Mississippi. On clear nights, with his parents permission, the boy would go over and visit the professor. The boy always had many questions, and the professor was kind enough to answer most of them. Together they would look at the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn and the redness of Mars. The boy could count almost every crater on the Moon and one very dark  night, he even saw Uranus. It was a wonderful experience for a hungry mind.

The boy remembered the launching of Sputnik, Echo, Space Lab and all the other small steps in getting to outer space. On clear, dark nights, he could sometimes see Echo cross the sky plane with a naked eye. Those were exciting times! One of the reasons Project Echo was so interesting to the boy was this satellite was built in Minnesota. It was huge to have something this important be built so close to where he lived.
 

As the boy grew into manhood, he entered the Navy. He never lost his fascination for the stars. While in San Diego in 1969, the young man had a minor operation at the Naval Hospital. As he watched television during recovery, he was able to see the first moon landing. He would never forget it. It was a promise come true. President Kennedy had told the nation we would go to the moon in that decade. Even though the president was assassinated, we still made it. Against all odds, we made it to the moon and back again!

After the Gemini and Apollo came the Shuttle. After seeing countless episodes of Star Trek on television, this could be the first step in becoming part of the United Federation of Planets! The man, who was not so young anymore, would watch in wonder every time a shuttle would take off from the Cape. To get this behemoth off the ground and into orbit was a marvel to say the least. It was science at its best. In his lifetime, the man had seen much of the science fiction from Tom Swift become science fact. Stand by Captain Kirk - we are on the way!

The man retired, and unfortunately, so did a big part of NASA. The Shuttle Program, which had once produced so many wonders, was now over. Our space program was reduced to "hitch hiking" on Russian rockets. We have some people on the International Space Station, but that is about it. No missions to the Moon or Mars are on the drawing board. NASA, which once created the stuff that dreams are made of, is now just a part of our history.

Yes, the boy who became a man is me. It is with sadness that I write this story about the demise of our space program. It has been said by many, the two organizations which really work well in our country are the military and space program. 

This weekend I will go to see the new Star Trek movie Into Darkness. Even though it has been decades since I was that young boy looking out my bedroom window, I can still look up on a clear, dark night and think about travelling to far off stars and planets. Since I can't have the science fact of space right now, I will once again settle for science fiction. Yes, this is the stuff that my dreams are made from.