Submitted April 30, 2003, 2:57 PM
What were your thoughts and feelings when you heard that Columbia was lost?
Please send my entire comments to my email: bugologist@cox-internet.com
I was following the flight on my computer indirectly and saw a bulletin that contact had been lost. I turned to TV. When they were still saying they were trying to regain communications, I thought, "Damn, don't give us that garbage." Immediately, my concern was for the program: That a crash would give opponents of space travel an excuse to kill the program. I have been worried for decades that America has abandoned its quest for knowledge, of which the space program was the crown jewel at the time of our visits to the moon. There are opponents who legitimately question whether manned space flight or non-manned should be emphasized in effort and application but this argument comes because opponents of the whole concept have forced this debate on people who see benefits of each. Opponents representing powerful political factions have forced the space program to get by with fewer and less able scientists and technicians, older equipment, and older ideas through the simple expediency of denying funding. My thought even before the crash was confirmed became anger over flying this antique machine. My harshest thoughts go to the all-too-intense background noise so close behind all American public opinion and political decisions caused by those who fear knowledge. Those are the creationists who hate the very idea of knowledge. I am an experienced amateur field naturalist at least nationally recognized in my research specialty so have first-hand experience with the horribly harmful effects the creationists and their front organizations like the so-called "Christian right" and some powerful "main-line" denominations of churches. I know very good scientists who left the profession or changed from serious researchers to the likes of museum curatorial jobs because pressures percolating through the ranks of political and funding decision makers was so strong. For the decade of my retirment, I have been seriously gathering information and trying to write a book that would persuade the public that science is good.
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If you are old enough to remember, please compare your responses to other important moments in space travel like the Challenger disaster and the moon walk.
I was assistant editor of a small Ohio daily and was watching Challenger launch after we had made up the front page but were holding the press run awaiting confirmation. At lift-off my brain screamed, "No, no, no. Abort. Abort." But my voice remained silent because I had just been hired and was in his office with the publisher and the other high monkey-monks over my editor and me. That took the surprise out of the erratic contrails but made them much more intense and horrific for me. I had to revive myself and go back to work and totally remake the front page. When the print-run started usually was time for lunch and other relaxation for editors, but still in a near-catatonic state I sat at a keyboard and banged out an editorial for tomorrow's edition -- which was widely recirculated by Associated Press, which labelled it "the first small-paper editorial on Challenger." I had a personal interest because Astronaut Col. Bob Overmyer had been my tennis partner and catcher when I tried to pitch high school baseball. We had to be our own group of two because we did too well in class to be truly among the athletes and because we were athletes the "brains" didn't accept us either.
Apollo 13 was a defining moment for me because I watched the recovery with the ob-gyn who delivered my son, and he made the time of birth the exact moment the capsule reported "on the chute and fine."
Very early in the space program, I spent several months off San Salvador Island when my ship was one of several sent there to try to pull an LST off the beach. The LST had radioed that conditions were bad because of a storm but had been ordered to go in anyway. That was when I understood that even something as big and important as the space program could fall victim to too much emphasis on time and not enough on believing an expert. The expert being the C.O. of the LST and the order worrying about time coming from an Air Force colonel who had no concept of the effect of ocean turmoil on a ship, especially one as small and underpowered as an LST.
My last C.O. at sea had been C.O. of VX-1 when a young Marine Major named Glenn was plucked out of it to become an astronaut. I was navigator on that ship so had hours and hours to listen to stories, including about his being secretary of the first astronaut selection board. He was way too tall for selection so could not be considered himself.
I think I was at sea for the moon walk, so it was long done by the time I heard about it. Being a fellow Ohioan, I did have some feeling of state pride regarding Neal Armstrong.
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Have your views of space travel changed over time?
Yes, definitely.
During the early missions, I think I saw it as an extension of technology and as an element of national pride, or general human pride of accomplishment. When the program began to be cut back and began to have to fight for money and people/expertise, I recognized that many Americans, including many politicians and others of influence saw the space program primarily as a contest with the Soviets and a matter of national pride. My opinion of such people took a deep dive. My opinion went even deeper when some politicians and others who had supported the program as a contest worth engaging in lost interest when others, like me, began to see it is an important scientific endeavor. The quest for knowledge is not able to compete with the quest for popularity. "Winning" at science is not so sexy as "winning" a race!!! But isn't it far more important, and more lasting?
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Name
Ronald F. Rockwell, LCDR, USN Retired
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In addition to saving your story to the archive, may we post it to the web? (yes/no)
How did you hear about this project?
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