Apollo on Truth Serum – Not Steroids

Guest Blog: Apollo’s Spirit Alive and Well, Andrew Chaikin, Space News
“Four decades later the challenge is not just to follow Apollo’s trail into deep space, but to do it affordably and sustainably. That’s not going to happen if NASA continues to be run as a jobs program as much as a space program. These are the things I think about when I hear people like my manager friend say that commercial companies should be patient and wait for the fruits of NASA’s experience to spin off to the private sector. They apparently don’t see that this spinoff has already happened, that companies like SpaceX have digested the collected wisdom of NASA’s first half-century and are building on it. And they are doing so with a boldness that could be game-changing — even for heavy-lift launchers. The spirit of Apollo is alive and well, if only NASA and Congress would allow it to flourish.”