July 20, 1969: Around the world, millions watched history unfold on television as Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. For mankind, it was a giant leap. For the United States, it was much more. With the success of the Apollo 11 mission, the Americans finally gained the upper hand in an enthralling race that had begun a decade earlier with the Soviet launch of Sputnik.
Forty years later, the sequel is being written as the U.S. and many other countries, including Canada, gear up for the next moon shot. Like the Sputnik and Apollo programs, this new space race is a golden opportunity to inspire the next generation of space explorers and enthusiasts. But, first, they need this generation to tune in.
Back then, at the height of the Cold War, the public was easy to engage. The narrative was simple: two superpower adversaries - the freedom-loving, technologically advanced U.S. against the totalitarian, ostensibly backward Soviet Union - in a battle for space supremacy. Each side cheered for the home team.
Then the Cold War ended. Without an adversary or a clear endgame, the U.S. space agency soon found itself pulled in all directions by competing priorities. Rather than using the Apollo success as a stepping stone to exploring other planets, the Americans (and Russians) abandoned the moon and spent the next four decades, literally, going around and around Earth.
Even as NASA rushes to implement George W. Bush's goal of sending American astronauts back to the moon by 2020, energy and enthusiasm are on the wane, what with tightening budgets, missed milestones, an ambivalent new president and an increasingly jaded public.
