As the space shuttle Atlantis touched down in Cape Canaveral July 21 for its final mission, the former director of orbiter production for NASA, and current Wiscasset Selectman Ed Polewarczyk said he was filled with emotion.
“It’s bittersweet. I had a flashback to the first shuttle launch in 1981,” Polewarczyk said. “I had calls from former colleagues at the Johnson Space Center. It’s an emotional end.”
NASA decided to end the program due to escalating costs and the fallout from the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. Polewarczyk, who worked with NASA from 1974 until 2008, said the public had also lost some of its enthusiasm for the space program since nearly 1 billion people tuned in on television to watch the Apollo moon landing in 1969.
“NASA did not do a good job at conveying the importance of the shuttle missions,” he said. “People forget what came from this.”
Polewarczyk listed a number of innovations including improved sterile environments in hospitals, wireless power, and water purification. In all, 6300 patents have stemmed directly from NASA research, he said.
“With the Apollo 1 disaster that killed three astronauts, we learned that a single piece of lint in a pure oxygen environment could start a fire. These are hard lessons to learn but they can ultimately benefit society as a whole,” Polewarczyk said.
With the end of manned space flight seemingly here, Polewarczyk ruefully noted the space program is losing a human element, which cannot be replicated by robots or drones.
“There are limits in research with using machines only. Human operators can compensate when things don’t go as planned,” said Polewarczyk.
The shelving of the shuttle program also means the end for thousands of engineers who have dedicated their entire careers to the cause, he said.
“These are some of the most brilliant minds in the country,” Polewarczyk said.
He estimates each space shuttle is designed to withstand 100 flights making the NASA decision all the more hard to swallow.
“The space program is leaving a lot on the table by deciding to park the space shuttles in a museum,” Polewarczyk. “The capabilities have not been exceeded.”
He predicts NASA will eventually find an alternative to the shuttle program in the future, but for now laments the end of an important era in the nation’s space program.
“After I arrived in 1974 it took us seven years to get there,” Polewarczyk. “It’s over too soon but the program will continue.”
