50 Years After Sputnik, We Take Satellites for Granted: How Sad

The 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik is this month. When I was a kid, everyone would watch space launches on TV. They were at least as cool as "Dancing With the Stars."

Less than 12 years after Sputnik, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon, and the all over the world, people stopped what they were doing to watch them land and hear Armstrong say "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

Now, says Jeff Foust, editor of The Space Review, nobody pays much attention to space launches, or thinks twice about installing a satellite dish for their cable reception, listening to satellite radio, using GPS. These advances are all but invisible, which is really a shame.

What would it take to get that sense of wonder back again? Maybe it won't happen until the first tourist flights to space.

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