Fifty years ago, Apollo 7 had just lifted off from the Cape Kennedy Air Force Station at Cape Canaveral, in Florida. It was notable because it was the first Apollo craft to take off since the dreadful fire which killed three astronauts in January 1967.
It was, in effect, the first manned flight of the Apollo series, which was trying to put men on the moon. The spacecraft spent 11 days in orbit around the Earth. It paved the way for the first trip to the moon, without landing, by Apollo 8. Apollo 8, of course, is the mission which saw the iconic photograph, now known as ‘Earthrise’, taken by Bill Anders, as the Earth appeared above the moon’s surface.
I can still recall, with real clarity, being allowed to stay up to watch the landing on the moon a year later, when Apollo 11 touched down and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked around. I was at boarding school and, like many others, thought the idea of going to the moon was just magical. What an achievement!
But it’s only 50 years ago. I wonder where we’ll be in another 50 years? Every now and again, I can watch the international Space Station passing overhead and think just how marvellous it is. Will we go further? Will we go to Mars?
Nasa is under instructions to land people on Mars by 2033 and other countries expect to do so by 2040 or later. However, a private company, SpaceX, is planning to put people on the Red Planet by 2024. SpaceX is owned largely by Elon Musk, however, and his somewhat eccentric and mercurial nature, whilst clearly inspirational, may be rather too unstable to guarantee that Mars will be reached.
Apparently, he has said that he wishes to die on Mars, not by crash-landing, so maybe he will make it happen. It would be wonderful if it did.
We have a sort of built-in desire to explore, don’t we? When I arrive in a new town, or go on holiday to a new place, one of my first instincts is to ‘go and explore’. I even call it that. I’ve heard other people say it, too. We have this thirst to find out, to see what is around the next bend in the road and to see something different.
From the Phoenicians of 3,500 years ago to modern man, via the Romans, the Greeks, the Chinese and Europeans, we have had this drive to find out. As a result, we have discovered things, from new metals to new places; from new peoples to new friends. We are collectively and personally richer because we have this desire to discover. The so-called ‘Age of Discovery’ is the period when European nations set off and found the Americas, India and Africa.
‘To boldly go’, as Star Trek would have it. Space, the final frontier. Fiction often reflects reality, doesn’t it? I wonder what technological marvels await us in the next half century? Beam me up Scotty!