Will our space dreams live on?

On many summer days, my mom would go to the grocery store and I would head for the public library.

Still wearing Little League dirt, I'd walk across the hot asphalt and into an air-conditioned building that smelled like print on paper.

Many times, I'd emerge carrying an armload of books about space and astronauts. My grade-school cursive name was on those checkout cards multiple times. I couldn't get enough - Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Gus Grissom. That's what I was going to do. Strap me to a rocket and blast me straight to glory.

When I was 10, the Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off. I was giddy and proud watching it on TV. It was the perfect match of a can-do American moment and a time when I thought I could do anything. It still makes me feel good to think of it.

Now, I have kids, including one who turns 10 in January. I am now commander of the Odyssey, by Honda.

And the last space shuttle has launched. There's really no clear idea what comes next for Americans in space. Words like “disarray” are being used to describe NASA. President Obama sounds like a one-note Buzz Lightyear vowing to go to Mars ... and beyond, even though we've got no vehicle, no rocket and no money to get us there.

The thrill has faded. What's going to become of those astronaut dreams? When my kids stare at the stars, through all the light pollution, will they be far off abstractions to shrug at, or destinations to reach for?

Are we really all done? NASA leaders say no way, but are they just blowing booster exhaust?

Maybe my pesimism comes from the fact I've traded armloads of American triumph for a belly full of American politics. In case you haven't noticed, the gloom is getting slathered on pretty thick. Every day, some “hopeful” who deeply loves America says we're screwed.

Add all that doomsday to the final glimpse of American shuttle propulsion arching skyward, and it's disheartening.

But that kid in the library says it's not over. We still need to go to space. Rocket fuel is in our national blood. He just can't believe the nation that landed on the moon will let this die. Neither can I.

I have faith that humans from this explorer nation will go back, and farther. We'll make the stuff we need and put it together and go. Remember back in 2011 when they said it couldn't be done? Maybe a glimpse at the precipice is exactly what we needed to break out of low earth orbit.

They'll write a pile of books about it. And some kid will download them all.

Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@sourcemedia.net