![]() ![]() space program as the superpower rivalry moves into space, with ambitious plans for moon bases and flights to Mars and beyond. In reality, there's long been talk of manned flights to Mars, but it hasn't had anywhere near the intensity of the '60s space effort. The last moon landing was in 1972.įlight change: In "Mankind," the superpowers' decision to amp up the Cold War in space changes policy and budget priorities. America gets out of the Vietnam war in the early 1970s, a few years earlier than the real war's conclusion in 1975. The Soviet Union doesn't invade Afghanistan. Teddy ready? The surprise Soviet moon landing leads U.S. Edward "Ted" Kennedy to return to Washington, D.C., for related hearings, canceling his plans to attend a party on Chappaquiddick Island. His rising profile and Kennedy lineage could result in a huge reelection challenge for Nixon in 1972. In reality, Kennedy drove a car into a pond on the Massachusetts Island on July 19, 1969, resulting in the death of passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and the resulting stigma reportedly influenced his decision not to run for president in 1972. (Nixon was reelected in a landslide.Six months ago, President Obama asked a team of academics, astronauts, and aerospace executives to give him options for the future of the space program. Those options, as described in the Augustine Committee's just-released final report, must have sent a little thrill up our Spock-loving nerd in chief's leg: setting up a lunar base, flying to a Martian moon, etc. There's just one catch: NASA doesn't have the resources it needs to pursue these plans. Exciting proposals for voyages to alien moons aside, the report's attention to dollars and cents makes it a cosmic buzzkill. Though the committee has kind words for commercial-space programs and international partnerships, the fate of America's space adventure seems to depend on an overstretched, debt-saddled public agreeing to cough up more money over more years. Kennedy faced this dilemma, he used a mix of Cold War fears, national pride, and New Frontier optimism to send Americans hurtling toward the moon. But President Obama can't rehash JFK's arguments and expect that NASA can once again command nearly 5 percent of the federal budget. ![]()
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