Helpful lessons from the space race

摘要

I very much enjoyed reading "John F. Kennedy's Space Legacy and Its Lessons for Today" by John M. Logsdon in your spring 2011 edition of Issues. As usual, my friend has turned his sharp eye toward the history of space policy and produced an incisive and provocative analysis. Although I find myself agreeing with much of what he has to say, there is one point on which I would take some exception. Logsdon notes that "the impact of Apollo on the evolution of the U.S. space program has on balance been negative." This may seem true from a certain perspective, but I think that this point obscures the broader truth about the space program and its role in our society.