_Live From Cape Canaveral_ - Jay Barbree [128]
These plans give NASA a head start on getting to Mars. A lunar outpost just three days away from Earth will give space travelers needed practice of “living off the land” before starting out on the long road to the fourth planet from the sun.
Arguably the best mind on our planet today, famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking believes “Life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as global warming, a genetically-engineered virus or other dangers.” Hawking says flatly, “I think the human race has no future if it doesn’t go into space.”
The good news is NASA has a devoted and strong man at its helm in Dr. Michael Griffin. He told my NBC colleague Tom Costello, “The space station is on the footpath towards becoming a space-faring nation. If we’re going to go to Mars, if we’re going to go beyond to live on other planetary surfaces and use what we find there and bend it to our will just as the pilgrims did, we must take all these steps to become a space-faring nation. I want that for the American people—I want that for my grandchildren.”
I find myself chomping at the bit to go. It’s the excitement of Columbus’s voyage, of the wagon trains west. The crossing of the space ocean to younger, more promising planets is the future of humankind if our species is to survive. The only foundation that will not sink beneath our feet is knowledge.
After fifty years on the job, I find myself satisfied and grateful and pleased with a life well spent. Life is indeed good, and we should all cherish it. Knowing that my days are numbered, I find myself missing all those good friends and loved ones that have gone on before. You have found their stories in these pages and in a way, I’m looking forward to following, meeting up with them again. But I am sad that I won’t be shouting into an NBC microphone about the building of a lunar colony or the start of a months-long journey to Mars.
God, what exciting times they will be!
What a future for those who will live it—those who will be going and those who will be staying as the flotilla sails for the fourth planet. How I would like to be there!
And don’t count me out just yet! Astronauts are to return to the moon in this century’s second decade. If my flesh makes it, I will be in my eighties. If not, my spirit won’t be far away.
Searchable Terms
Advanced Research Projects Agency ARPA)
Aldrin, Buzz
Apollo 11 mission. See Apollo 11
celebrating Apollo 13 return
Gemini 12 mission
mastering spacewalking
moonwalk
notified of lunar mission
photograph
Anders, Bill
Anderson, Mike
Angotti, Joe
Antares
Apollo 1 countdown
fire inside
Frank Sinatra and
funerals after
futile attempts to save men
hatch problem
incompetence leading to disaster
investigation after
Lovell prayer thanking crew of
Apollo 7
Apollo 8
Christmas message
communication blackout and return
crew
descriptions of moon/Earth from
first orbit around moon
onboard television coverage
reading from Genesis (Bible)
reason for launch time
return to Earth orbit
splashdown
transcript anecdote
Apollo 9
Apollo 10
Apollo 11 countdown
crew advised of lunar landing mission
forces on crew
if prerequisites
Jimmy Stewart watching
linking Eagle and Columbia
minute following liftoff
Apollo 11 (cont). moon landing
orbiting Earth
prelaunch preparations
public frenzy before
splashdown parties
thunderous liftoff
trans-lunar injection
See also moonwalk (first)
Apollo 12
Apollo 13
in circumlunar orbit
cold and lonely astronauts
Deke Slayton managing problems
diagnosing problems
explosion aboard
fuel cell problem
Lovell’s perspective
lunar module lifeboat
as NASA’s finest hour
Nixon’s celebratory visit after
prayers and support for
predicament of
preparation for reentry
re-engineering carbon dioxide scrubbers