The Gap in U.S. Spaceflight

Is U.S. spaceflight over? Has it ever been this bad off? Beyond Apollo blogger David S. F. Portree brings an historical perspective to these questions in an opinion piece. Warning: if you enjoy wallowing in gloom and doom, you won't want to read this.

Image: NASA.
July 1979 was the busiest month for American spaceflight I could remember, and it was a mixed bag. On the one hand, Skylab fell from orbit, pelting Australia with debris. Where the heck was the Shuttle, which was supposed to have saved it? That was bad. On the other hand, Voyager 2 zipped through the Jupiter system, returning more breathtaking (and freaking weird) views of the planet’s intricate zones and bands and crazy moons (Voyager 1 had flown past Jupiter earlier in the year). That was terrific.
July 1979 also marked four years since Americans had last flown in space, three years since Viking 1 had landed on Mars and found no recognizable life, and 10 years since the first men walked on the moon. The Shuttle was late, I couldn’t get a date, and the first Star Trek movie wouldn’t be out until Christmas.
Much has been made of the current “gap in ...