It was with great sadness I awakened to the true realization of what had happened on Saturday morning. Having spent a couple of summers just up the road from Johnson Space Center in a suburb of Houston, knowing a couple of people from the center, and as a part-time futurist who has always been intrigued and captivated by space and space travel, the news hit me especially hard. My condolences to particularly the families, but also the entire NASA team, who will no doubt be spending many sleepless nights over the next few months trying to figure out what went wrong.
I think it's important to reflect at this time, and I hope for the sake of our society that we do not let this dampen our enthusiasm for space. I'm frankly a little concerned that this could set NASA and the space program back another five years, as the Challenger disaster seemingly did in 1987. Like any new frontier, the exploration of space is fraught with danger and untold perils, but also great rewards. Space exploration and related endeavors have resulted in innumerable extraordinary inventions that have become such a part of society we now take them for granted.
We must try to minimize the danger, but *NEVER* forget how important it is to reach for the stars, sometimes seemingly beyond our capability. It was Lyndon Johnson who decided we needed to send a man to the moon, and with his will and the will of many others, it happened. In 113 Shuttle missions, only 2 have resulted in, albeit, devastating and catastrophic failure. That's still well over a 98% success ratio - far greater I'm sure than the days of Columbus, Cabot, et al, who, like today's space explorers, faced great danger and peril in exploring the world's oceans, but also realized the extraordinary rewards that more than made up for the risks they took. Without them and their brethren, this continent would still be sparsely inhabited at best - space exploration will likewise continue to lead to amazing discoveries the likes of which we have never seen.
The astronauts of today, like the mighty seamen of yesterday, are true heros. They understand the risks of space travel, and accept them, because they realize the tremendous benefits of going into space and braving new frontiers. It is imperative that society continue projects such as the international space station, the Hubble telescope, and our eventual goal of propeling men/women to Mars and beyond.
