Fifty years ago, Americans turned on their television sets and watched in awe as two men glided onto the surface of the moon. It was the greatest feat yet in space exploration; a victory in man’s war against the unknown.
This week, in celebration of its 50th anniversary, Americans relived this triumph by gazing on the vessel that made it possible: Apollo 11, the great Saturn V rocket, displayed on the Washington Monument in the nation’s capital. The life-sized, 363-foot projection of the rocket lit up the National Mall as part of the Apollo 50 Festival, which featured performances, exhibits, and speakers throughout the week.
Despite John F. Kennedy’s commitment to make it a priority, space exploration has been neglected and bogged down by political squabbles about cost and efficiency. The space race that consumed American politics at the time of Apollo 11’s moon landing no longer exists. The Soviet Union is gone. Indeed, its descendant state, Russia, is an important partner in the U.S.’ limited space ventures.
But Americans are still fascinated by what could be. Outer-galactic shows like Star Trek still capture the American imagination; constellation maps are in high demand, and private entrepreneurs like Elon Musk have vowed to take us back there, one way or the other. If President Trump’s Space Force is successful, he might take us back as well.
Will imagination and the desire for knowledge be enough to return Americans to the moon? Or must we settle for life-size projections and recreations of a technology that now seems ancient? Certainly, modern science isn’t the problem. We have the technology, and funding shouldn’t be hard to secure.
What, then? Perhaps we lack the courage to face the “strange sensual exhilaration palpating those precious pebbles, of seeing our marbled globe in the black sky, of feeling along one’s spine the shiver and wonder of it all,” to borrow Russian author Vladimir Nabokov’s description of Apollo 11’s lunar landing. Or perhaps we no longer have the resolve and commitment to lead the charge into the unknown.
Regardless, it’s undeniable that Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind” made its mark not just on the moon, but on the human imagination. Perhaps it’s time to let it push us forward, 50 years later.
—By Kaylee McGhee
