I need to say that I have been an enthusiastic fan of America’s aerospace activities since the Mercury program in the early 60’s. Aerospace was an instrument of modernization and held promise for a bright and prosperous future. To be sure, America has gotten very good at aerospace since early WWII. The Soviet Union was an early achiever in space flight, ahead of the USA for a time. While they put objects and people in Earth orbit, our rockets blew up on the launch pad. Or so it seems. The Soviets have never been anxious to show the bad with the good.

NASA began the Artemis Program with the aim of America’s return to the moon. Our bragging rights from the 1969 moon landing are gathering cobwebs in the face of international space programs. At home SpaceBro Musk and his SpaceX business is eclipsing NASA in many ways, at least at the surface.

During the Apollo Program, the matter of allocating funds for the moon landing was openly questioned in public. With a list of social issues and a land war in Southeast Asia, why were we throwing cash at the moon? This splash of cold water in the face was largely ignored except for superficial explanations like being something for all mankind to celebrate. Another retort was “look at all of the beneficial technologies that have come from it”. Or the folksier example that Teflon frying plans arose from the space program though not true.

In the mid 1960s, the evening news featured space developments and footage from the Viet Nam “conflict”. We’d see images from the program then footage of F4 Phantoms or B-52s dropping napalm in the jungle. Then we’d hear Walter Cronkite reporting the daily body counts of Viet Cong and US soldiers killed and aircraft shot down. There would be sound bites from Henry Kissinger doing his shuttle diplomacy at the Paris peace talks or pictures of Robert McNamara scurrying with President Johnson out of meetings.

This was a time of contrasts. Glorious space flight against a backdrop of anti-war rioting students, shootings at Kent State, rioting in Chicago, the hippy and civil rights movements. In my locale, the generation of my parents and grandparents were firmly against protesters, conscious objectors and the civil rights movement. Communism must be stopped at any cost. While they could not elaborate on their opposition, they would carefully repeat the words of authority figures who defended clubbing protestors or tear gassing civil rights protesters. Out of respect for my elders, I would try to integrate these views into the overall picture of what I saw. Not until later in high school in another state where I met students who had a clearer understanding of politics did I come around to a more liberal perspective.

“Avoid land wars in Southeast Asia.” Advice from several possible sources.

Today, the President of the United States is close to sending troops to Iran without Congress, allies, or UN approval. Do we remember the Korean, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars? Gulf War I ended quickly because President Bush 1 declared victory after liberating Kuwait but before removing Saddam Hussein, who then stayed in power. Later, President Bush 2 invaded Afghanistan and Iraq in a failed attempt to fight terrorism, claiming that Al-Qaeda hates freedom. I have always felt this statement was a diversion and needed questioning. Do terrorists really hate our freedom, or do they oppose our support for Israel or view us as aggressive infidels?

Questions:

• What tangible imperative sends us to the moon in a time of war and collapsing democracy?
• A decision was made to shelve the lunar space station project and accelerate establishment of a moon base. Was this decision inflected by the current Iran war difficulties and a White House desire to distract? An easy correlation but difficult to prove secret motives.
• Establishing an expensive moon base project while simultaneously burning a $1Billion/day in an illegal war of aggression makes sense because …?
• What is it about stationing humans on the moon that feeds the national interest?
• Would a Chinese manned moon landing before a US return landing be deleterious in any way other than prestige?
• What is such prestige actually worth to US manned space progress? So China gets to the moon before our return. We got there by 1969. Does maintaining “leadership” in space internationally require an uninterrupted series of firsts?
• Is there a scenario where the US will ever direct massive funding for national infrastructure refurbishing as well as better health care for the public?

Defense contractors are a national resource and strategically critical to homeland defense. The Department of Defense understands this as well as the need to help keep these companies financially healthy by issuing contracts during the year for spare parts and new projects.

Our country has been in dire need of self-care for many, many election cycles.

As Americans we have opted to ignore aging infrastructure all over the country as a priority. This is a choice. Is the construction industry just too low on the lobbyist pecking order? Is America in need of a stronger construction lobby? Perhaps the home building industry has the bulk of attention.