A Reflection on American Innovation and Achievement – 45 Years beyond Apollo 11
John F. Kennedy, speaking to a stadium full of Americans at Rice University, September 1962:
“If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time…
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again…
But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain?
We choose to go to the moon…
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone…”
At 2:56 UTC time, on July 21, 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar module landed on the surface of the moon and mankind set foot on another heavenly body for the first time in history. In the words of the immortal Neil Armstrong, it was “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Although he was not alive to witness this event, John F. Kennedy promised that we would put a man on the moon and return him safely before the decade is out. We rose to the challenge. When the crew of Apollo 11 returned to the Earth and toured the world, they were greeted by all with the words, “we did it, we did it.” Not, “you did it.”
In retrospect, if the Apollo program stands for anything beyond the height of Cold War anxiety and competition, it stands for the unwavering and resilient spirit of American innovation at its best. The challenges laid before the American space program by our fallen President were nearly incredible at the time since much of the technology which would be required to accomplish a mission of such magnitude had not yet been invented, or had been envisioned, but never put to practice. Nonetheless, our spirit in the face of such adversity did not falter and all the technology needed was invented to meet the challenge of putting a man on the moon. The culmination of this achievement in rocket propulsion was the Saturn V rocket. Weighing 6.2 million pounds and standing 60 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty, this rocket flew in the face of everything science and technology had thought possible at the time. To many who worked on the Saturn V, it was a culmination of childhood dreams finally come to fruition, the first in a series of missions which would forever take mankind beyond the confines of planet Earth to new worlds and a future unforeseen. To all who watched as the first Saturn V took men to the moon, it was just another example of the great things which could be achieved through innovation and undeterred spirit, a theme which has been integral to the American ethos since the day we declared our independence.
As we move forward into the 21st century, and inevitably into the vast frontier of space, we must not forget or abandon the innovative spirit which pushed American engineers, physicists, biologists, and mathematicians to accomplish wonders which were once merely the stuff of our imaginations. With many new players now entering into the field of commercial space flight with the intention of ferrying Earthlings to Mars to colonize and begin terraforming the planet, mining the moon and asteroids for precious metals and resources wherein they are immensely abundant, and NASA expanding its C3PO (Commercial Crew & Cargo) which will facilitate commercial efforts to expand and develop space transportation capabilities, we have much to look forward to in awe. Patent attorneys prepare… the future is coming and it’s going to be out of this world!
Ali Bushra
Law Clerk at
JAFARI LAW GROUP®, INC.