The recent space race has exposed the tragic mistakes that were made by Apollo astronauts more than fifty years ago. To be honest with you, I don’t think they should have been on the moon in the first place.
And that famous phrase after the lunar landings by Neil Armstrong, which says, “Its one small step for man and a giant leap for mankind.” is nothing but a complete satire. Neil Armstrong said one thing and did the exact opposite. When he said its a giant leap for mankind, he was trying to insinuate that their journey’s success was a victory for the whole of humanity, what he meant was that their well planned mission was going to bring greater good to the whole of humanity.
I wish I could find a NASA astronaut and ask them this question face to face, “Your famous Neil Armstrong claimed that there was great victory for the whole of mankind, why then did he go ahead and Plant US flag and not that of The United Nations on the moon surface?”
This very heinous act of US astronauts planting an American flag on a heavenly body one hundred and fifty million kilometers away from earth, sends a very wrong impression to all the other nations of the world. Its what agonizes them over and over again. It forces them to believe that for them to match their power and glory to that of the United States, they also have to put their own flag on the moon. It divides the world even further.
Some Astronauts may argue that the Apollo missions were funded solely by the US Government, and its none other than the US who have the right to plant their flag on the lunar surface. Well if that is the Case then you should never have put humanity into the phrase, the right words Neil Armstrong should have used were, ” it’s a small step for a NASA Astronaut and one Giant leap for mighty America,” had he said that, then he would have been honest with himself, at least
When US astronauts planted an American flag on the moon, it sent a very wrong impression to the other countries of the world, many of whom are ambitious just as the US is, its like saying, “Hey look at us, we are the masters of this planet, as well as the moon, we are the rulers of the earth and the heavens. Who can dare challenge us?” that flag there symbolizes some sort of colonialism, its like the USA is saying to the rest, we went there first, now we own the moon, its our private property in space, don’t you dare mess with it because you will be messing with us as well.
The other countries react by building their own space programs so that they can launch their own astronauts to plant their national flags on the lunar surface, they believe, its after they have done that will the US stop humiliating them publicly, even nations with struggling economies divert a huge chunk of their national budgets to space programs, which leaves a significant proportion of their populations starving. But who cares now, space exploration is the new form of National Pride, a symbol of prestige, the moon walkers stay on top of the pack and are treated with respect everywhere they go.
Neil Armstrong and his Apollo crew had a chance to make the world a better place, to finally bring a long lasting unity to all humanity, but when their time came to make a difference, they had failed miserably, they made the tensions that were already brawling right here on our planet to escalate further, I would classify this failure as “the greatest blunder of the twentieth century,” a time when humans had finally the opportunity to unite and put aside their weapons, but instead were inspired to build even more dangerous ones. NASA had failed to bring the world to unity by forcing astronauts to carry a flag to the moon then say contradictory phrases after that, phrases that are very hypocritical and have nothing of comfort in them, it would have been better had they not carried any flag there in the first place, their claim that NASA is solely US funded wasn’t enough to justify their actions. Besides, Rocket Science is an age old German technology, German Scientists were flying rockets long before WW2 broke out, moreover there are thousands of scientists with foreign backgrounds that are contributing to the US Space Program, which means that this is already an international operation. The best thing they could have done was to set up a UN flag there or no flag at all.
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