The New Space Race

I wonder how many SF writers foresaw all the twists and turns of our space program.

I grew up during the space race with the USSR years. We would watch space launches, on TV, in our New York City elementary school classrooms.  When I was about 10, I read my first SF novel,    I was in high school when we landed on the moon and watched, live, as Neil Armstrong took his first blurry steps.  He wasn't blurry, of course but the picture on our black and white TV was.  I heard his first words.

When my son was growing up, we would get space race videos out of the library and watch them with our son.

Now, as a senior citizen, I think about how far we have come.  Today, a nearly 71 year old man and a small crew went up to the edges of space in a private aircraft, and landed safely in a spaceport in New Mexico.  He said "I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars."  He dreamed and trained and trained some more. I wonder if he ever dreamed of being in what many are calling a "billionaire's space race."  To me, it's sometimes grown men acting like small children in a schoolyard, taunting each other with "my spaceship is bigger than yours." (or has more windows, goes faster, or whatever).

Some say Sir Branson should have spent his money on fighting climate change or some other Earthly endeavor.  Or that fine, he got his wish, and now, let's move on.

But I continue to ponder. There's a lot about this I'm not (in all honesty) comfortable with, such as the extensive taxpayer funding of the Spaceport America facility where the Virgin Galactic launches take place. (Will the everyday person ever see a return on that investment, or will space become a playground, and eventually, a possible refuge for the rich?)  But, on the other hand,  space has to be part of our future.  If these billionaires don't move us forward, who will?

So now, the next installment will be July 20, when Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin take their turn.