The Artemis II mission is a triumph of the American spirit — and a testament to California’s enduring leadership in the US space program.
Californians played a key role in every aspect of of the voyage around the moon, which took four astronauts further away from Earth than any human being has ever been.
There is Ontario’s own Victor Glover, the mission commander, who played football at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo before joining the space program.
The engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena managed communications with the Orion capsule through the Deep Space Network (DSN). And local Caltech scientists helped design the scientific projects carried out by the mission.
The USS John P. Murtha, based at Naval Base San Diego, is in charge of recovering the Orion once it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean.
Later missions in the Artemis program will use SpaceX rockets and vehicles to conduct the first landings on the moon in more than half a century.
Whether public or private — through NASA, or SpaceX, or one of many other emerging space start-up companies — California’s role in space exploration and innovation is not only prominent, but dominant.
We still boast the world’s top institutions of higher education, as well as the leading centers of scientific research and technological innovation.
California attracts talent from around the nation and across the globe, drawn by the opportunity to work with each other in an entrepreneurial environment that is second to none.
It is a tragedy that so many of the best and brightest leave again — as do the companies for which they work.
The state’s high cost of living, exorbitant taxes, and absurd regulations have pushed so many Californians to friendlier climes. Texas, which also has a long space legacy, has become a major tech competitor.
Our education system has also suffered a long decline since the heyday of the space program. We need our schools to produce the next generation of space leaders. Instead, California’s primary and secondary schools are failing to meet basic standards, especially in STEM subjects, while other states are surging ahead.
Hopefully, the success of the Artemis missions will inspire change — just as the Soviet Union’s success with Sputnik spurred a generation of American exploration and discovery.
For all its flaws, California is still a pioneer in space. Imagine how much further we will go when we fix what isn’t working.
