To: Electronic Telegraph <et.letters@telegraph.co.uk>
Re: My admiration and appreciation of NASA
Date: Sun, 05 Dec 1999
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Dear Sir,

I read the article "Another of our space craft is missing (...and another...and another)" by Robert Matthews - presumably your science correspondent - in Sunday's Telegraph with mounting fury.

Mr Matthews is an eloquent and amusing writer, but his attitude to the subject in hand is that of a scientific philistine - deplorable for the science correspondent of a reputable newspaper.  He expresses no respect or appreciation whatsoever of what NASA scientists have achieved, what
they are about, or of the historical dimensions of their undertakings. Instead, when they are going through a difficult time with their latest mission, and deserve our - and certainly get my - sympathy and support, he digs out and heaps, almost contemptuously, criticism upon them.

Of course NASA scientists make mistakes. Don't we all?  Considering the complexity and magnitude of the tasks they tackle, it amazes me that they have any success at all.

Born in the middle of the century, I have had the privilege of growing up with the Beatles and the American space programme, which has enriched my life with knowledge and experiences that I shall always be grateful for. Not being an American tax payer, I've never been asked to contribute a penny, so the very least I can do is to express my admiration and appreciation of their efforts, and for allowing me to share with them live both their achievements and their failures (unlike the Russians, who used to boasted to us of their successes after they had secured them, and hushed up their failures).

There is much that I criticise about America - like its gun laws, death penalties and its criminally wasteful consumption of Earth's natural resources -  but for its protection against tyranny, its astronomy and its programme of space exploration I am extremely thankful (neither listing is complete, by the way).

How can we imbibe in our children a sense of wonder and appreciation for the scientific and technological achievements of our age (based, of course, on the ages that went before us: the Americans would not have got to the Moon, or anywhere else in the solar system, without
Pythagoras, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton and many others), if this sense is lacking even in the Telegraph's science correspondent? Or perhaps I am mistaken about Mr Matthews being your science correspondent. Anyone who thinks that NASA has offered American taxpayers (and the rest of us) no more than "a few natty photographs" can have no more real interest  in science than the cardinals who made Galileo retract his opinion that the Earth moves around the Sun instead of being motionless at the centre of the universe.