Space Travel Inspires Unity

I just returned from the Kennedy Space Center where I attended the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on its final mission. Since I was a child, watching the Apollo missions on television, I have been fascinated by space travel and even spent time in the Young Astronauts.

It is hard to describe what it felt like to finally be on hand for what has to have been one of the most perfect launches in the history of the shuttle program. At exactly 2:20 p.m. on Friday, May 14, STS-132 blasted off into a perfect sky over the Florida peninsula.

According to officials at the Kennedy Space Center, there were an estimated 10,000 more visitors than were expected that day. When the shuttle's engines fired and the vehicle carrying a crew of six leapt from the launch pad, the cheers of those thousands of onlookers could have drowned out the noise of the rockets.

Around 75 seconds into the flight, everyone took a collective breath and held it as NASA ground control gave the infamous "throttle up" order, now etched into the American psyche as the moment when Space Shuttle Challenger exploded before a horrified country.

Even after dozens of successful launches since that cold January day in 1986, people still waited, almost silently to hear the words and wait for the result. "Atlantis, you are go for throttle up." "Roger, go for throttle up." Within seconds, some six miles from where we were standing, Atlantis rolled over on her back and with one final burst of speed disappeared into the heavens.

Thunderous applause ensued once more as everywhere I looked there were tears of joy from people of all ages and children wide-eyed as their parents held them on their shoulders and pointed at the long, white contrail left behind by the ship's powerful engines. It was truly breathtaking.

Even more awe-inspiring is the realization that for just a moment, 20,000 people on the ground and thousands more watching from around the country forgot their political and ideological differences and were united behind six men risking their lives to help make life here better for everyone.

Despite what uninformed and somewhat ignorant critics may say, the space program has yielded far more advancements than failures; advancements that affect us here on earth every day. In the 1970's, Honeywell developed a smoke detector for use in Skylab, America's first space station. It is the same technology now used in the smoke detector in your home which has saved millions of lives since its inception.

Cordless tools used every day in millions of homes across America were developed by Black and Decker for the Apollo moon missions. Astronauts needed a portable tool that could be used to bore into the moon's surface and collect core samples and the cordless drill was born.

Technology developed for monitoring changes in the Earth's atmosphere is now being used for the early detection of breast cancer. Special light emitting diodes (LED) used for plant experiments on the Space Shuttle are now used to perform surgery on brain cancer patients. And the list goes on. Of course, these advancements did not come without a price.

There is a long-standing joke that America spent millions of dollars developing a pen that would work in zero gravity while the Russians just used a pencil. Instead of an anecdote about wastefulness, I think it is more one of innovation. A pencil wasn't good enough for us - we needed to do better. And we did.

Space travel has also helped unite nations who were once on the brink of terrible war. In 1975, when the United States and the U.S.S. R. were at the peak of the Cold War, three American astronauts and two Soviet cosmonauts met high above the earth and shared a common goal.

As the Obama administration shrinks NASA's operating money and cancels many manned programs, including a return to the moon, it is hard to see what future America has in space. The American space program is more than budgets and hardware costs. It's about uniting people in a way that is hard to understand unless you have stood there among them in deafening applause watching together as the hope for our future rockets into the "final frontier."

Columnist Gery L. Deer is an independent journalist based in Jamestown. www.gerydeer.com