We just marked 50 years since the first man walked on the moon. This happened when J.F. Kennedy was in office as the president of the United States, precisely on the 25th May 1961. It cost approximately $25 billion (now equivalent to $180 billion) to land a man on the moon, although there were three men who went to the moon ( Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins).
During this time, a lot of people showed concern over the Apollo program. For instance, the social reformers during that time felt that it was draining the resources. Furthermore, Whitney Young, the then president of the National Urban League though that a fraction of the budget for the Apollo program was enough to lift every poor citizen in the country at that time.
The “Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11” book written by James Donovan retells about the Space Age starting form the Sputnik to the moon landing period.
Over the past decades, Presidents in the office have been announcing about the goals for human space exploration – including trips to the moon and back, asteroids landing, and Mars trips. Furthermore, NASA VP said that they will be sending astronauts back to the moon by 2024. Additionally, the SpaceX founder, Musk promised in 2017 that humans will be able to land on Mars and lay a colony in 2024. This was followed by Virgin Galactic, founded by Branson starting to sale tickets to space at $200,000 in 2004. This clearly shows the existing of a spirit of exploration.
Below is a video of the latest launch of the falcon 9 by SpaceX. Let me know your opinion and views about the future of space exploration.
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