The Columbia and the 21st Century
As a young boy growing up in the sixties and seventies, the 21st century was my destination. It was the future and I wanted to be ready. I can remember a strong sense that the entire world was changing. The chaos I would witness on the nightly news (the war, Martin Luther King Jr. and his assassination, the riots in the cities) were clear signs of changing world. A new world was coming, the old order was desperately holding on. But it was dying; the future was inevitable.
An optimism about the future was not just an idiosyncratic view. We talked about the future in school and at home. It may be hard to remember, but back then the problems of racism and poverty were talked about. We all knew that they had to go away. And I knew that by the 21st century they would be eradicated.
The future I imagined was one based on reason. In such a world there would be no racism, no poverty, no war. Who would create such a future? People who could think clearly without prejudice or superstition. I thought scientists were creating the future. I thought they would solve all the world’s problems. And as science’s most visible program, Apollo was the in the vanguard. As a boy I saw no difference between putting a man on the moon and eliminating poverty.
When the Apollo program ended, without creating human habitats on the moon, without the world changing, I was puzzled. All that was left was the shuttle, not the glorious space program of my dreams, not a man on the moon, but the utilitarian shuttle. But it was still there.
Well, it’s now 2003. What went wrong? Isn’t it supposed to be the future now. Did we lose? Did we give up? When I saw the Columbia go down, I realized that I still believe. The loss of a space ship feels like the loss of the future. I still dream of the 21st century.