On Money for Space Programs —and the Future

charlie Duke → I think astronauts and the accomplishments of the space program are still respected. I think the political climate did change: “Why are we spending so much money on the Moon?” My answer to that was, ‘We didn’t spend a dime on the moon. It was all spent on the United States of America.’ We had 400,000 people. A lot of people benefited from the technology that was developed in the space program. There have been many studies showing that the rate of return on our investment has been significant from the space program and the space race, if you will.

Michael collins → The space program is a relatively minor element in our American society. I don’t want to exaggerate the importance of how important the space program was then, how important it was now. I am a true believer in the space program. But I don’t want to go overboard and say, “It’s going to fix this, and world peace and racism and women and everything,” you know? It was a good achievement at the time. That’s all. I just don’t want to exaggerate that somehow.

russell schweickart → My hope is that in the middle of all the hubbub of national politics, parties, and bickering, and all the rest of it, that there is a deeper understanding within national leaders. Whether the Congress or the administration, both hopefully, that space exploration is something that is a deeper level of responsibility. It’s a responsibility in a sense that we have to generations, countless generations, in the future. That is the future of where life is evolving, and I would hope that a piece of their commitment to their NASA annual budget, and to international cooperation, and to enhancing, or supporting imaginative, deep exploration arises out of that deep recognition, that’s what I hope. At the same time, what we see every day in the newspapers, and on Twitter and everywhere else, is the BS, the froth, the bubbles, the bickering, and all the rest of it. But, I hope underneath that there’s a bit of a deeper understanding of our responsibility to the future.