Success story
Sir: Surely John Graham (26 July) shows a peculiar naivety in his article on America's Apollo 11 flight. In his opinion the expense is justified by what he believes to be the great adventuring spirit of the American people. To use his own words, `They went because it was there.' However, I am sure that most people realise, as apparently did the late President Kennedy, that the expense of the programme was justified only by its prestige value and not its scientific value.
It seems quite obvious that NASA was not inspired by noble adventuring ideals but that the entire programme was designed in order to try and humiliate the Russians. I can only think that John Graham has been influenced by some American propaganda movement trying to gloss over this 'cold war' aspect of the space race and to make us believe that its motives really are above reproach.
H. T. Cook 82 Burnway, flornchurch, Essex Sir: I notice that, in spite of his apprecia- tion of the practical character of Americans in general, as exhibited in their moon pro- ject, John Graham (26 July) has misinter- preted the metaphor of that most practical American of all, Benjamin Franklin. When Franklin compared an embryonic flying machine with a new-born babe, surely he was not saying that both were worth having for their own sake, but that both showed great promise of development. Today, rather than conclude that the moon project is the culmination of an adventure, such as was the conquest of Everest, we should be looking at the promised developments of further space undertakings, both practical and intellectual, and, one should add, aesthetic (cf. my letter published 14 June, 'Why go to the moon?'). Not surprisingly one finds more instructive comment on these prospects in American publications than in the British press (e.g. Time magazine).
As to the cost of space: it is interesting to think that Britain might afford such a programme if we were willing to do with- out cars (like the Russians), or without the Health Service (like the Americans); and it is a pity that nobody is willing to do with-
out 'defensive' deterrents—the us spends annually on these twice as much as the moon project has cost over a decade. Per- haps the Americans are not all that prac-
tical after all!
Roger Franklin
Loom Cottage, 36 Loom Lane, Radlett, Herts
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