If you have ever watched “From the Earth to the Moon” or seen “The Right Stuff” or “Apollo 13” you know that there was a time when NASA was the coolest thing around. Yeah, sure, it was a place actually run by geeks who actually wore pocket protectors and loved math, but it was still cool. Look, they were creating things that would cause human beings to hurtle into space, fly around the moon, land on the moon, and then fly home again.

One thing always struck me about the whole story of Apollo 13. The thing was that the entire organization seemed to get together, hurtling every resource they had at the problem and resolved the issue. They determined that there would be absolutely no way that those astronauts would die in that capsule. As they said in the movie, failure was not an option.

Somewhere along the way things began to change with NASA. I remember when the Columbia disaster happened. It happened so soon after the 9/11 tragedy, I remember being strangely numb to the whole incident. When the Challenger exploded, I remember being in shock and thinking I would always remember where I was when I heard about it (Mr. Weiman’s class). That was not the same with the Columbia disaster.

However, a strange thing happened in the investigation into the incident. It was determined, as you may recall, that a piece of foam broke off of the machine and damaged the heat-resistant tiles that prevent the type of disaster that occurred. When it was discovered this was the issue, NASA repeatedly said that even if they had found out that there was a problem, there was nothing the organization could have done to rescue the astronauts and save the ship.

What?

What happened to failure was not an option? What happened to the people who figured out how to fit square air filters into round holes on the Apollo 13 capsule? What happened to the people who figured out a way to shut down the computer and then restart it to save those astronauts? It was like a collective malaise had sunk over the organization and they just kind of shrugged their shoulders.

I guess that, at some point, space flights just became routine. I know this was also a problem with moon landings. At some point it was something everyone expected to happen and no one wanted to watch rapturously anymore. That was part of the underlying story of Apollo 13.

Somewhere along the way NASA has become a drain on society. It is no longer cool to have an organization that siphons off huge amounts of money for very little payoff for the average man. Granted, much of the government falls into this category, but the space thing just seems harder to grasp. What has the space shuttle done to really help my every day life, seems to be the question. I mean, Velcro can only go so far as something people find useful and that came out of the space program. Does anyone still drink Tang?

I still think NASA is cool. I still enjoy watching a space shuttle take off. I hear that if you manage to see one in person, you will never question how cool the shuttle is ever again. I also think the space station is pretty cool and has a lot of potential although I have yet to understand exactly what they are doing up there that will benefit mankind.

NASA is also showing some spark again. Just this week the shuttle docked with the space station. During the installation of some equipment some computers went dead. These were computers that guided the space station’s altitude and trajectory. Someone decided that the shuttle could use its engines and help keep the space station doing what a space station does. In some way that was kind of like turning the LEM into the life raft that saved the Apollo 13 astronauts.

What I do not see are people on the edge of their seats wondering if the space station can be saved. There is not total coverage of the thing. I think I have the blame the aging and retirement of Walter Cronkite for at least some of this. Everything just seemed cooler and more interesting when Walter Cronkite was telling it. With 24 hours news and such, news stories about outer space just don’t seem as cool anymore, I guess.

The need for NASA to regain some of its coolness has forced the agency to look toward landing on the moon again. This has the feel of a sequel to me, though. You know that sequels are just never as cool as the first version. NASA is saying this would be an important first step toward an eventual manned trip to Mars. You know, I have seen the pictures those vehicles on Mars have sent back and to me it looks a lot like parts of Arizona. Do we really need to spend countless dollars and risk the lives of men and women just to go to a place that looks like Arizona but with less interesting scenery? I bet they don’t even have a Stuckey’s up there.

I think maybe NASA just ran out of things to do. At some point it became obvious that there weren’t going to be moonbases that people could fly to for a family vacation. They also were not going to develop some kind of personal jet pack for people to use. Once you got to the moon and realized much of what is out there around us is dead and lifeless and less interesting than a visit to your old aunt Selma’s place, well, it must have been a hard sell for other things. I remember being excited, as a kid, at the idea of the space shuttle assembling a space station like a space construction machine. Now the station is there and it completely under whelms me.

They also never did make pocket protectors cool, either.

Bryan W. Alaspa’s novel Dust is available in print and eBook format at his website www.bryanalaspa.com and www.amazon.com. He also has two short stories available at www.amazon.com.