Jim Spellman is director and public affairs officer for the Western Spaceport Chapter of the National
Space Society (NSS). Founded in 1974, the NSS is an independent, nonprofit space advocacy organization headquartered in
Washington, DC. Its 35,000 members and 54 chapters around the world actively promote a spacefaring civilization.
Information on NSS and space exploration is available at http://www.nss.org/
October 6, 2002
This week, October 4-10, the United Nations will commemorate the beginning of the Space Age by celebrating World Space
Week [www.worldspaceweek.org]. Originally the idea of a Utah State student in 1980, World Space Week has since grown to be recognized in communities and
cities throughout the United States and around the world in 45 other countries. This year's theme is "Space and Daily Life"
-- a very appropriate commentary for today's world, since space plays a valuable role in our everyday lives.
Humanity -- and particularly the residents of Central California and Santa Barbara county -- have much to be proud of after
45 years of spaceflight and exploration of the space frontier. And yet, many are ignorant or surprisingly detached from the
affairs and world-shaping events that literally revolve around them.
To them, space is difficult, mysterious, too technical or scientific to comprehend -- and therefore irrelevant and unreachable,
even though it lies 50 miles above their heads. They might cast a passing glance at some 30-second clip on their local TV
news, or flood phone lines of police and fire departments after seeing "strange lights" in the night sky above Santa Barbara
county and Vandenberg AFB. Worse yet, some are beginning to believe we never landed on the moon. It was nothing more than a big "Hollywood stunt,"
concocted on some super-secret sound stage in the Nevada desert. However, the truth that is out there is that California -- and Santa Barbara county in particular -- has played a major leading role
in opening the space frontier every step of the way.
"The Greatest Generation" as Tom Brokaw has described them, not only helped win the war in the Southern California
factory plants of Boeing, Lockheed, North American Rockwell, Northrop, Grumman, TRW, McDonnell Douglas and Martin
Marietta Corporation -- not to mention hundreds, if not thousands of smaller, local subcontractors -- they eventually beat the
swords into plowshares through the peaceful exploration of the space frontier.
Our first steps to the stars took place in the Mojave Desert at Edwards AFB in October 1947, when Air Force captain (now
retired Brigadier General) "Chuck" Yeager broke the "Sound Barrier" by flying the rocket-powered X-1 from the unknown
into the history books -- a feat originally thought as impossible to do. In early 1958, after the Russians successfully orbited the world's first satellite, a small group of dedicated individuals at
China Lake near Ridgecrest secretly cobbled together an air-launched satellite vehicle called "NOTSnik" (a not-so-subtle
play on "Naval Ordnance Test Station" and "Sputnik"). Launched over the Pacific from an F4D Skyhawk fighter jet, "NOTSnik" is believed by some to have been the third satellite
launched into orbit at the dawn of the "Space Race." Ironically, this "odd couple" of aircraft and rocket is seen today with
Orbital Sciences Corporation's "Pegasus" air-launch platform -- a modified L-1011, originally homeported in Bakersfield at
Meadows Field in 1994, and used on missions originating from Vandenberg AFB.
The world's first polar-orbiting satellites known as the "Discovery" and later the "Corona" surveillance series were
launched from Vandenberg AFB. Since 1958, over 1,800 launches -- twice as many as Cape Canaveral in Florida -- have
occurred from the Central California coastline, initially helping to maintain the peace in the middle of the Cold War, but
eventually helping to jump-start a World-Wide global telecommunications and environmental industry in the process.
To the southeast of the Tehachapi Mountains, the fury and thunder of the F-1 rocket engine, generating over a million pounds
of thrust, roared to life at the Air Force Phillips Laboratory while the X-15 research aircraft flew 199 missions overhead,
taking some of its pilots -- including a young civilian named Neil Armstrong -- into and out of the lower reaches of space.
Armstrong, along with Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins eventually rode five of those F-1 engines on the first stage of the
mighty Saturn V rocket to become the first Americans to land on the moon in July 1969. The lessons learned from the X-15
program gave way to the M2-F2, HL-10, and X-24 lifting bodies -- all of which lead to the development of the space shuttle
that still makes occasional landings back at its birthplace in southeast Kern County.
The famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (Flintridge-La Canada) has stunned the world with closeup images of the
moon via Ranger and Surveyor, hinted at life on Mars with Viking 1 and 2, brought us closer to the worlds of the Outer
Planets with the Pioneer and Voyager mission, and flooded the Internet with millions of "hits" after the July 4, 1996 landing
on the Red Planet with Mars Pathfinder and the Sojourner rover.
Even today, the skies above the Mojave desert are filled with new and unusual vehicles being flown and tested by Burt
Rutan's Scaled Composites company, and newcomers like XCOR Aerospace.
To be sure, there have been some bumps along the road into space (think Rotary Rocket Company, Iridium, and the recent
back-to-back failures of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander), but on the whole, thousands of Californians have
helped successfully launch artificial satellites; landed astronauts on the moon; and explored all the planets within our Solar
System, save Pluto, with robotic probes.
And yet, while space exploration seems futuristic, it no longer advances at the same pace as other technologies like the
personal computer or the Internet. It is a simple fact that human beings act more quickly on self-absorbed interests and
motives than altruistic ones.
Recent articles in the news regarding the demise of the California and Florida-affiliated Space Camps have suggested that
public interest in space is dead and no longer relevant in a post-9/11 world. We prefer to believe 'It's Just Resting' -- until
the spark of interest is renewed within the children of today who'll look beyond the shortsightedness of our current elected
officials and the self-imposed limits of their parents and educators who value sports and entertainment over academics.
There was a time when kids wanted to grow up to be astronauts or work in the science, technology and engineering fields to
better the society they live in. Now, they want to be "Just Like Mike," Britney Spears or Shakira; choosing to make a fast
buck and find fame and fortune with a hook shot or a Top 10 song. Sadly, these are totally unrealistic goals for 99.9% of our
youth who seem willing to sacrifice the educational requirements needed to compete in a 21st century world that's leaving
them far behind. Today's youth should not have to grow up believing that Luke is the only "Skywalker" around. If individuals were allowed
to claim private property rights in space (to have a sense of ownership) they would have an interest in going there, and
taking the rest of us right along with them.
The United Nations exists "to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom." The United States,
working together with the United Nations, should extend freedom and opportunity to all. It is not enough for us to stand
against terrorism; we must work together to build a better civilization.
We benefit daily from our communication and weather satellites, as well as orbiting telescopes and planetary probes.
Human space exploration has provided scientific knowledge, and simple inspiration, from the first space walks to the first
images from another planet. And yet today, we are more concerned about our dwindling resources, polluted waters,
skyrocketing electric bills, energy and raw materials being consumed by our civilization with no replacements down the
road. However, our solar system is swarming with rock, ice, and metal -- asteroids and comets -- the very resources that we'll
need in the future that's in abundant supply. We could use solar power satellites to provide nonpolluting energy more
powerful and longer lasting than ground-based solar power. Through space mining and space-solar power, we could
improve our environment and create new economic opportunities for people on Earth.
Much of our current environmental awareness has been the result of seeing our own world and others from space. Global
warming became important to us thanks to our studies of Venus and Mars -- as well as our own look back at Earth.
Scientists now believe that Mars used to be warmer and wetter than it is now, but something altered its climate. We might
learn even more crucial information about our own world by exploring Mars in person. And moving outward, what might we learn about our own world by exploring the moons of Jupiter or Saturn? The more we
learn about other worlds, the more we learn about our own world and how better to live on it. Therefore, the exploration and development of space are truly "green" missions, as they would allow us to make our own
world safer for future generations.
Finally, the only way to eliminate poverty is to make everyone rich. The riches of the solar system could provide that
wealth. That's a goal that the United Nations and the average person could support.
It is for these reasons I belong to an organization that seeks to make these missions possible in the near future and turn your
dreams into reality today. I encourage you to become active in supporting this next branch of civilization by joining the "New Space Race" in opening
the space frontier for the rest of humanity.
-- Jim Spellman
