The Space Race throughout the Years from a Boomer Viewpoint
By cybrscrybe | Published | No Comments
My most memorable memory of the Space Race was sitting in the living room of our 3-bedroom house in a Baltimore suburb. This was on July 20, 1969. This incident occurred late at night, and Dad let us all stay up late that night. I was 19 years old and in college, but the other three siblings were still in school. We had to adjust the rabbit eared antenna on the top of our TV as the signal was fuzzy. But we were all mesmerized by how far those pictures were coming to us — from the moon! The pictures from the moon were intercepted occasionally by pictures and commentaries from news rooms here on earth. We had followed the space flight from take-off to circling the earth to finally circling the moon. This trip lasted 4 days. The landing on the moon took place in the middle of the night Eastern time. We watched in awe. Neil Armstrong took that trip down the ladder onto the moon’s surface. Then he took his first step. He announced his last step down as “One small step for Man, one giant leap for Mankind.” I’m sure most humans were wondering… was the surface solid? Would he fall through? We watched in awe as he planted an American flag on the moon. The first country to get there. The last day of that trip, most Americans followed the astronauts back into their spaceship. The astronauts were then homeward bound.
That trip was a feeling of mostly awe from what had been accomplished in those 4 days. However, the total space experience wasn’t as angst-free.
In 1970, during the Apollo 13 space flight, some glitches occurred. This made it doubtful if the astronauts would land safely. I was in college at the time. I was not tracking all the ins and outs of the flight. Still, I was aware there was a challenge with getting the astronauts home. At the time, I didn’t know about the explosion. It took out a power block and affected the navigation system on the computers. I became aware when IBM flew my dad to Houston. He went to the space station to fix a glitch in the computer system. When the astronauts were safely back on earth, a couple days later, I asked him a question. I wanted to know if he had fixed the system glitches. His reply was a humble, “They had it almost figured out when I got there.” That was my dad! Intelligent but humble.
I think I became more aware of the whole space continuum throughout my college years and then into adulthood. My teacher training covered space history. My enthusiasm for the space programs was profound. It took an emotional toll during the Challenger space flight. During that flight I was teaching 4th grade, and space and the planets were part of our curriculum. So I was doubly excited when the crew of the Challenger was chosen. One of them was a teacher, marking the first time a civilian would go to space. So I watched Christa McAuliffe’s rise through the program and was excited for lift off that day. I had a TV in my classroom. I excitedly hooked it up. My students and I watched the take-off. With horror, I had to quickly turn off the TV. The space ship had exploded in mid-air. I didn’t tell the students that it meant the astronauts had all died. I hoped they would realize that on their own. They could then talk about it at home with their parents. I think we did discuss it over the next few days as a news item as the bodies were found. But it was a tricky thing to talk about with 9-year-olds.
I think we did discuss it over the next few days as a news item as the bodies were found. But it was a tricky thing to talk about with 9-year-olds.
I was glad that the space program used Christa McCauliffe’s death to create an education program for students, as well as making the study of space a priority. The program included scholarships for future astronauts and science educators.
As the years went by, the space program went through some busy times, and not so busy times. The Space Station and the shuttle program was developed more. In the early 2000’s NASA was talking about a space program to live on Mars in the next twenty or thirty years. Some of my educational activities with my students included brainstorming how they would create a community on a new planet. Hopefully, this motivated them to dream their own futures.
As we get through the twenty-first century, and currently in the mid 2020’s, the Mars program is still a dream. However, now it is the dream of a politically controversial billionaire, Elon Musk, so maybe it still has a future. In addition, President Trump has formed the Space Force as part of the United States military program. So though we are behind on the original NASA timeline, Mars is still a possibility. Maybe not in my lifetime, but in my students!
Other Baby Boomers are encouraged to add their experiences and remembrances to these thoughts. Where were YOU when…??
Email your answers to cybrscrybe@verizon.net or comment on my Learningbyts Blog @http://learningbyts.net/WordPressBlog/byts-of-history/
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