49 years

As I write this, we are a few minutes away from the 49th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik and the dawn of the Space Age. The dreams of a million visionaries burst forth into the outer atmosphere that day, and the futurists predicted great things.
The military, meanwhile, gnashed their teeth at the Russian achievement. Their own satellite exploded on the launch pad a few days later. It wasn't until the Moon landing, over a decade later, that their egos finally settled down.

And now, here we are, sending aging shuttles into orbit to build a space station, the purpose for which they haven't even decided. Moribund, blind, and crippled, the Space Age totters on.

More than a few look upon this fact with satisfaction. Space is a waste of money, they cry. Funny, I've never heard that argument applied to the billion dollar media empires whose sole purpose in life is to keep the American people informed as to who Brad Pitt is dating this week.
The public will grab up every copy of a book on crop circles, the Holy Grail, or Alien visitations, yet cannot be bothered seeing what the two Mars rovers are doing.
(Did you even know they were still running and sending back data?)

I've heard endless examples of the technological benefits created by and for NASA; the current microprocessor industry is just one that would not exist except for a billion dollar government program that needed very small computers.
Less well publicized, but just as important, was the spiritual benefit. APOLLO was about hope. Hope for the future. It was the great adventure, the great task. It brought us together, inspired us. We felt we could do anything. We felt we could change the world.

We need that feeling back. In this day and age, when all we feel is fear of foreigners, hatred of political opponents, and, above all, apathy and disgust at the world as it is, . . . we need that burst of enthusiasm again.

It's time we did something about it. Virgin's commercial spaceships are just a start - we need to do more than send tourists up there. We need to retake the high ground with a project worthy of the Human Race.

The 50th anniversary would be the perfect time to unveil it. Let's get started.