Today, a great chapter in America's history came to a close. Today was the last flight of the space shuttle Discovery to her new home at the Smithsonian. For many people who were alive during the beginning of the Cold War, this marked the end of a chapter that captivated a whole nation and gave the Americans one of their greatest victories over the Soviets. The space program started during the Cold War, and was a way for both superpowers to wage a "war" without weapons.
The space race was a competition between both nations on who could be first; first into space, first on the moon, and first walking on the moon. It became a "sport" with the US and Soviets being the teams and their respective space programs were the players. Both nations rallied behind their space programs; when launches were scheduled the people would stop and watch it on TV or listen to the description on the radio. School children could recite the names of the shuttles, the men who crewed them and what each launch accomplished.
Kennedy's address on the space race spelled out the feelings of both nations: "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." The nation was crushed when the Soviets sent Sputnik into orbit, and we vowed to work even harder to surpass that goal. We put our best scientists to work on getting a man into orbit, travelling to the moon and eventually putting our flag and footprints on the moon's surface. The nation celebrated our achievements!
Back then we had such high hopes for our space program. At the beginning of the 20th century the moon was this white thing that hung up in the sky; a symbol for things that could not be achieved. Sixty years later, an American made vehicle landed on the moon and two astronauts emerged and stepped out onto the powdery surface. Literally, the sky became the limit! There were dreams of visiting the Martians on Mars and possibly travelling outside of our solar system. Young boys wanted to grow up and be astronauts and they knew the sacrifices necessary to achieve this goal and they were ready for it. We took pride in our space program because we wanted to be the best and we became the best.
Space fever captivated the country. On TV the Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Lost In Space and numerous other programs explored space travel. There were songs about space, parties for shuttle launches and even proms that took place on the "moon." We as a nation were proud of what we accomplished and we wanted to do more. Not only did we beat the Soviets in the space race, we moved a nation to continue to call for exploration and to push ourselves to our absolute limits.
We all know how it turned out, and the disappointment makes me feel so sick. But on this day I do not want to think about that. What I want to remember is the first time I saw a shuttle launch, the first time I wanted to be an astronaut and the first time I looked up at the sky and realized that we were there. I want to look at that beautiful picture of Discovery. It renews my passion for studying the Cold War. Without the Cold War, we would never have realized our full ability as a nation. We would have never pointed to the sky and said "we will go there." There are a lot of bad things that came out of the Cold War, but we mustn't forget the good that came out of it as well. And as a people, we cannot forget when we look up at the sky that we were there, and there is where we will hopefully return to once again.
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