Space Program Needs a Boost

I am an eighth-grader at Aliso Viejo Middle School. Last year, when we spent a brief two weeks studying the space program in science, we learned all about the first mission into space.

We followed the triumph of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they took that famous first step, and the missions to the moon following Apollo 11. After that, things seemed to come to a standstill. All we did was go around and around the Earth like a carousel. We put a space station up, but after visiting it a few times we just let it fall back into our atmosphere. What happened to our magnificent space program, the envy of the rest of the world? Simple. Budget cut.

While every other country sticks with something long enough to perfect it, we lose interest and move on to something else. It’s the same thing that happened with the supercollider. Congress decided we had gotten where we wanted to go and gave up. What happened to America, once the leading country in technology? Back when we were racing to the moon, we were the high-tech nation in the world. New technologies were being developed every day. Now we’re being surpassed by countries such as Japan and Germany.

There are so many other worlds to explore. I dream that one day, when my own children are in eighth grade, they study the Gemini missions, the space shuttle program--and then go on to learn about our missions to Mars, our colony on the moon, and our space station that still proudly orbits the Earth.

Who knows where Mars would lead us? One day we may discover faster-than-light travel and with it, other habitable planets--maybe even extraterrestrial life. How will we know, if we never spend the time or money necessary to get past the first step?

SARA LUDOVISE

Laguna Niguel