When I was a kid, my dream was to become an astronaut. My main interest was in space, and specifically, the space shuttle. I drew space shuttles; I built plastic models of them; I begged and pleaded with my parents to order patches signifying their various missions.
At my parents' home -- amongst all my childhood toys and other things that my folks keep unsuccessfully begging me to go through and get rid of -- are a white jacket with two NASA patches sewed on it. Also, somewhere, is a 4-foot tall model of the space shuttle, attached to its two booster rockets and its bright orange fuel tank.
Of course, Jan. 28, 1986 was one of the most horrible days of my childhood. I remember hearing the news as I was on the school bus, on the way to my fifth-grade class at Pleasant Valley Elementary School. The shuttle Challenger had apparently exploded after lift-off.
After departing the bus, I ran to the office to see if school officials knew anything. They didn't. Of course, I'd learn all the horrible details soon enough.
Because of my childhood obsession, I learned everything I could about the space shuttles. I have numerous books on the program. It was the subject of every school report -- at least that I could get away with making it the subject of -- throughout my studies. Even though I abandoned my astronaut dream in middle school (I was already 6 foot 2 in seventh grade; seeing as that was the maximum height for shuttle astronauts, I decided it wasn't meant to be. Of course, because life is funny sometimes, I got no taller), when I had to take on the persona of a public figure for a high school presentation (a la Chautauqua), I chose to be a shuttle astronaut.
The news of the Saturday's shuttle tragedy hit me when I stumbled out of bed and turned on the TV, intending to search for an interesting college basketball game. My first emotion was sadness; my second was anger.
While I believe that budgets had nothing directly to do with Saturday's events, it's undeniable -- assuming a belief in a strong, vibrant space program -- that the government has woefully underfunded NASA over the years. One figure I saw said that through the 1990s, NASA's annual budget remained at $15 billion -- which, when you figure in inflation, means the budget was essentially cut by 25 percent.
As much as I love the space shuttles, three of which remain, they should be in museums, obsolete reminders of a recently ended chapter of the history of space exploration. Remember, the shuttle is 1970s technology. Now, stop and think of other 1970s technology -- 8-tracks, the first VCRs, Pong on Atari, computers the size of cars -- and look at how far we've come.
But not the space shuttle. Yes, its systems have been updated through the decades, but it's basic design remains from the mid-70s. (And even the shuttle design that's been in use since then was budgeted down from what NASA wanted.) There is no reason whatsoever -- funding aside -- that NASA couldn't have developed a shuttle that could take off from a runway without any external rockets or fuel tanks by now. Remember that the Challenger disaster happened because of o-ring failure on a booster rocket -- not the shuttle itself. And it appears that Columbia's demise may be as a result of a chunk of the external fuel tank coming off and hitting the shuttle during takeoff, resulting in fatal damage.
Also, the Columbia itself has been flying for 22 years. 22 years. Think of how many model 1981 cars are on the road. It's ridiculous that our space program has been so stagnant that a 22-year-old ship is still in service, no matter how many times it's been refurbished and upgraded.
I can only hope that the government sees the error of its ways and agrees to fund NASA better from hereon out. Yes, space travel is a risk -- the truth be told, it's probably amazing that more horrible accidents haven't happened. But it could be a lot safer if the budgets hadn't been cut so much.
And for that, our Congress should be ashamed.
Jimmy Boegle is a fifth-generation Nevadan currently on exile in Arizona. His column appears here Tuesdays, and he can be reached via e-mail at jiboegle@stanfordalumni.org.