Reply #8: Whatever happened to NASA, anyway...? [View All]

[Innoma]

I remember this kid I went to school with. Danny. Bright guy. Loved Estes model rockets. Efficient and no-nonsense. Years later when I learned he worked for NASA, I wasn't surprised. NASA seemed to attract all our best and brightest, and Danny was certainly a natural fit. I always wondered whatever ever became of Danny, but even more so, I wonder what became of NASA itself?

If there was ever an organization that had the power to command our continuing respect and awe, it would be NASA, the one governmental agency that seemed to represent all the best forward-looking impulses of man. When you were young, how many times did you hear parents or teachers say, "why, you can become anything, if you set your mind to it, even the president or an astronaut!"

But my, how things change. Given some of the more recent occupants, aspiring to be president hardly seems noble any more, and becoming an astronaut now puts you in the company of tawdry, murderous love triangles and drunkards.

Not that I'm condemning NASA as a whole, however, but it makes me wonder ... whatever became of people who seemed more, well, noble and representative of what's best in us? People like Danny.