Spatially Challenged
The fall of NASA and the prospects for a new Space Age.
Written by Filed under Science & Technology
Once upon a time, Americans were captivated by space ventures—the country’s collective interest peaking in 1969 with the first Moon landing. But in the ensuing 35 years, the Space Age has come and gone and when Columbia burned up in February of 2003 few Americans were even aware that a shuttle mission had been in progress. In the new book “Lost In Space: The Fall of NASA and the Dream of a New Space Age” (Pantheon), author Greg Klerkx—former director of the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute—attempts to explain why government-sponsored space projects no longer capture the public’s imagination.
Ironically, Klerkx identifies the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA)—with its myriad political and financial interests—as being largely responsible. Yet Klerkx doesn’t focus on assigning blame for this state of affairs. In fact, he argues that a new Space Age may be on the horizon, as a burgeoning private space industry has quietly been filling the void left by NASA. Recently, Failure interviewed Klerkx about the past, present and future of space travel.
What motivated you to write “Lost In Space”?
A few different things converged to the point where I felt I needed to do something more than simply grouse about my own upset. One was my own long lingering hope for a human Space Age—based on my childhood expectations of Apollo and other things that were promised in the wake of that. Also working at the SETI Institute, I got the chance to get a firsthand look at the space program in a way that most people don’t. I think the combination of those two things led me to a couple of conclusions. One is that the reason human space flight hasn’t moved further is not technological—it’s largely political. That’s not necessarily a stop-the-presses conclusion, but the source of the political problems was a surprise—that it was NASA, the organization that most think is charged with moving space flight forward.
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