The Economist, a magazine published in Great Britain, has run one of those articles on the occasion of the conclusion of the space shuttle program, celebrating what it sees as the end of the space age in smug terms that are sure to offend.
The question of whether the space age is ending or just entering a new phase has previously been covered. But it is interesting to note the British version of schadenfreude that permeates the article in The Economist.
"No longer. It is quite conceivable that 36,000km will prove the limit of human ambition. It is equally conceivable that the fantasy-made-reality of human space flight will return to fantasy. It is likely that the Space Age is over."
It is sad that the country that brought us Arthur C. Clarke, the British Interplanetary Society, and the Garriott family of space travelers, should produce a paragraph so stark in its smug assuredness that the answer that it elicits is either a guffaw of laughter or a choice Anglo Saxon curse. The space age is over. America is in decline. And about time too,
Mind, The Economist has some evidence to support its assertion that the great dream of human space exploration is over. President Obama cancelled the Constellation space exploration program. What has replaced it is pretty much in chaos, with factions at NASA and in the Congress pulling at it this way and that and no one apparently in charge.
Even the vaunted new era of commercial space is in trouble. Having brought to the nascent commercial space sector a pot full of government money, NASA is about to demonstrate that where government money comes, so do government bureaucracy and government rules that some believe might choke off the age of private space flight before it is well begun.
But it seems that The Economist is making a common mistake in assuming that history always travels in a straight line. On July 20, 1969, most people were of the belief that by this year, if not sooner, there would be people living on both the Moon and Mars. A hit movie of the previous year, "2001: A Space Odyssey", predicted an expedition to Jupiter taking place ten years ago.
Of course none of those things occurred.
The Economist has not reckoned with the notion that the American political system has a self correcting mechanism. The bad decisions of one dysfunctional administration are often met with a popular uprising, followed by the election of a different administration which sets out to correct those mistakes. Carter, after all, was followed by Reagan and the rest, as they say, is history.
Many pundits have already concluded that President Obama is a one termer and will be followed by some Republican. No doubt fixing the space program will be down on the list of things to do, after the budget deficit, health care reform, and the standing of America's position abroad. But it will be on the list.
The dream of space has not died. It is only at bay, waiting for changed political circumstances to blossom once again.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.
