The decades of the space program that lead up to (and included of course) Apollo 11 represented, I think, the highest level of optimism we could have mustered f

The decades of the space program that lead up to (and included of course) Apollo 11 represented, I think, the highest level of optimism we could have mustered for the future — highest level of self-esteem we could have garnered for not just the U.S., but for the world (but perhaps especially for the U.S.). As a kid in elementary school at the time we seemed to be a country moving to embrace science. Heck, even the Metric system was being speed-run (ran?) into the curriculum. (Until it wasn't.) I would hate to shutter that. To be sure, public interest waned after a few landings, the follow up Space Shuttle was a bit lackluster — and fraught with some unfortunately spectacular failures. ISS did little better in terms of public enthusiasm. Is it the Cold War competition that is lacking today? Are we too mired in a gloomy outlook for our future, for our planet's future that we haven't the energy to be excited about anything any more? I rather doubt that last bit — perhaps in fact we're starving for something to lift the public mood. I think too we were deep in a dark fog after Kennedy's assassination — maybe the youthful Beatles and the space program were two of the prime movers that pulled us (somewhat?) out of that funk (never mind it all despite Vietnam and all the fallout from that). Perhaps we'll see the Chinese put their citizens on the Moon in the near future. Perhaps that will be our Sputnik moment for the 21st Century. I kind of think we might need a healthy (one hopes) competition to lift our spirits, perhaps unify us again....