OK, I’ve had a long day, I’m coming down with a cold, and I’m tired, but I’ve got one more post before I go to bed, and the day is over. Just in case I do end up posting a little more, because it’s such an important post, I’m going to keep it at the top until the end of the day.

I’ve been really depressed for the last week as a result of the failure of the SpaceX launch attempt. It was a major blow and disappointment not just to SpaceX, but to the whole notion of private space. I’ve gone through a lot of soul searching, and am starting to question everything I thought I believed about the best way to open up the new frontier.

I’ve come to realize that we do in fact have launch systems that work, most of the time, even if they’re expensive. We have a space station, if we could just muster up the gumption to finish it, and start to turn it to the useful ends for which it was intended. Shuttle is risky, but any new frontier is risky. We need to work hard and spend whatever it takes to continue to minimize the risk of losing our priceless astronauts, even if we don’t fly it for another three years. We have a president with a vision, a Congress willing to support it to a degree, and a new NASA administrator (a genuine rocket scientist–something we’ve never before had as a NASA administrator, and isn’t it about time?) with great ideas about how to get us back to the moon quickly (or as quickly as the stingy folks on the Hill are willing to fund).

Maybe it’s just because I’m getting old, or don’t feel well, but I know now that relying on guys in garages, operating on shoestrings, is never going to get us into space. The skeptics are right–Rutan’s done nothing except replicate what NASA did over forty years ago.

Furthermore, I realize now that it’s not important that I get into space myself–what’s important is that the opportunity is there for my children. Or my grandchildren. Or my great-grand children. It may take a long time, because we know that space is hard.

What’s important is that we have to keep striving, keep supporting these vital efforts, never let our interest flag or wane, in getting our people back to the moon, and on to Mars, no matter how long it takes, no matter how much it costs. Yes, it costs a lot, but we are a great country, and a rich one. There are so many other things that the government wastes money on, it’s very frustrating that we can’t get the support we need to ensure that this NASA human spaceflight program, critical not just to our nation’s future, but to that of humanity, can’t move faster. I now realize that Mark Whittington is right, and that there’s a very real chance that the Chinese will beat us to the moon, and lay claim to the strategic high ground. But we must accept that, and work to change that potential outcome, whatever it takes.

Ad Astra.