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their way. It is reported that surviving
cosmonauts are urging the government
to press forward with spaceflight explor–
ation in spite of the tragedy.
Despite the tragic end of the Soyuz
11
flight, the Soviet space program can
add the world's first space station to its
long Jist of space firsts. Among other
"firsts" are thc Jirst satellite in earth
orbit, the first man in space, thc first
space walk, the first satellite to send
back photographs of the dark side of thc
moon.
Russia: "First in Space"
Permaneotly?
While tbis latest Soviet space achieve–
ment has been labelled purely scientióc,
the military advantages of a more or
less permanent manned orbital space
station are not to be ignored. At the
present time, according to former
cosmonaut Konstantine P. Feoktistov,
the station is "... an experimental test
ilight. Its basic airo is to check the nor–
mal functioning of the station and com–
plex machines which Soviet specialists
learned to develop."
Tbe Soviets state that the main
purpose of the station is to amalgamate
a large quantity of scientilic, economic,
technical and medicobiological research.
But they have not elaborated as to what
specific types of information they are
seeking. Feoktistov described the test
station as a manned space laboratory,
containing telescopes, spectrometers,
electrophotometers and vision devices.
Military equipment as such has been
banned in previous space treaties. How–
ever, tbe possible use of a space station
for certain strategical reasons is not out
of the question. And while it would be
premature to accuse anyone of utilizing
this latest achievement roilitarily, it
should be noted that previous space
treaties have
not
stopped all military
activity in space, by eitber the United
States or the Soviet Union. "Spy" satel–
lites have continued to be launched.
Communications and weather satellites
can still be used mil itarily "if
necessary."
Meanwhile, excitement about the
space program l1as waned. Once Ameri–
can astronaut Neil Armstrong set foot
on the moon in 1969, the space race
was over in the eyes of most Americans.
Also, many governmeot leaders felt a
stop shouJd be put to spending addi–
tional money on costly space explor–
ation. Consequently the 1971 space
budget was slashed to only slightly more
than half what it was in 1966.
In fact, most Americans had ques–
tioned the necessity of putting a man on
the moon in the first place. In a Louis
Harris Poli conducted in January of
1966, 49% of those polled opposed an
American manned landing on the moon
while 39% favored such a project. And
when asked if they wanted the space
project to continue at a cost of 4 billion
dollars per year, 55% were against it.
The poli also listed the five main crit–
icisms of the space program.
1)
"We could better use dte money
for problems here at borne."
2) "We can use dte money better to
help mankind."
3)
"There
is
no reason to explore thc
moon or dte planets."
4)
"God never intended us to go into
space."
5) " l t's
just a waste of money; there
wi ll
be
nothing there of value when
we get tbere."