Apollo 11 50th Anniversary is Golden, NASA's Future Uncertain

Michael Collins (left) and Buzz Aldrin (right) with President Trump in the Oval Office.

Today or yesterday (depending on your location) marked the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. In the lead-up, celebrations commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the greatest feat of exploration in human history took place all over the country. On Friday, surviving Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, along with Neil Armstrong's sons, were the guests of honor at the White House celebration of the historic achievement.

While the 50^th anniversary of Apollo 11 is undoubtedly a great source of pride for Americans (and should be for the whole world), remembering past greatness has also prompted many to look toward America's future in space, which is, unfortunately, not so clear.

In stark contrast to the singular focus NASA exhibited in the 1960s, the NASA of the 21^st century could be described as lost not in space, but on the ground.

With mounting calls for the retirement of the Space Shuttle following the 2003 Columbia disaster, then President George W. Bush announced the Constellation Program in 2005, which sought to return Americans to the Moon by 2020 via heavy lift rockets similar to the Saturn V. There were to be two versions of the new Aries rocket: one designed for manned launches and another designed for heavy cargo payloads.

By 2009, a study concluded that Constellation was grossly over budget. As a result, in early 2010, then President Obama announced that Constellation was going to be canceled and replaced with a single rocket: the Space Launch System (SLS), which could be built in multiple configurations while utilizing technology originally developed for Constellation.

Fast forward 9 years and it's more of the same.

The first SLS launch, set to be an unmanned capsule around the Moon, was set for December, 2017. The first manned flight was targeted for mid 2021. Obviously, December, 2017 is over a year in the rear view mirror, which does not bode well for 2021. Official target dates for the unmanned launch is now 2020 and the manned launch is now back to 2022.

However, manned American spaceflight has a new champion in President Trump, who has made it very clear in the form of executive orders that he intends to see to it that Americans will once again be able to not only fly themselves into space, but to the Moon. Earlier this year, NASA announced that its Project Artemis (the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology) seeks to land astronauts on the Moon again by 2024 with the long-term goal being the creation of a permanently manned lunar base that will serve as a stepping stone to Mars.

Additionally, there is a new player in space that wasn't even imaginable in the 1960s: the private sector.

While there are now numerous private companies involved in spaceflight, the far and away leader of the proverbial pack is SpaceX.

Looking at SpaceX and what it has achieved since its 2002 founding is like looking at a shopping list. SpaceX was the first private company to: launch a rocket into orbit (2008), orbit and then recover a spacecraft (2010), send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (2012), complete a propulsive landing of a rocket (2015), reuse a rocket (2017), and launch a payload into solar orbit (2018).

The most intriguing possibility, however, is that offered by SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. First launched in February, 2018, according to NASA, the Falcon Heavy is capable of launching astronauts to the Moon, although the SLS is the preferred option. With the SLS falling ever farther behind schedule, there is a very real possibility that the Falcon Heavy could be NASA's ticket to the Moon by 2024 if the SLS is not ready to go in time.

Yes, these are not the 1960s when manned spaceflight was a matter of national priority and pride, but the possibilities offered by the private sector are undoubtedly exciting, too. NASA astronauts riding a privately-owned rocket to the Moon? The idea would have seemed crazy in 1969 but, come 2019, this could be the future of America in space.

The future of manned spaceflight may look different, but the possibilities are truly limitless.

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