352. 48 years ago

Those were the days of our glory. By us I mean all intelligent people, all passionate, sensible people, all people who are able to discriminate objective reality from the bare wishful thinking. And, of course, people who are able to distort objective reality to match their wishful thinking.

But those days have passed. In reality, nothing really went wrong, we did what we could. It was the very objective reality who was saying since 1961 “no”, “no” and “No” to our space program. Space did not make us rich. Space did not open those multiple possibilities for us which, as seemed, were so promising. The most successful space missions that took place since 1961 were and are unmanned missions. As my favorite writer, Sir Arthur Clarke, said in “Childhood’s end”, the stars are not for Man.

But you know… I think that our very failure just signals the end of our childhood. I think we will return to space, maybe not as Men, but we eventually will.

I don’t believe in God, but I do believe in human spirit, human knowledge, human curiosity, human race. Either we or our children will reshape this Reality itself, the Reality that did not open the doors of Space for us.