Ayn Rand's "Apollo 11"

Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 19:35:43 -0700

Ayn Rand was among the VIPs invited by NASA to witness the launch of
Apollo 11, on July 15, 1969 -- the launch that was to land the first
human beings on the Moon, and return them safely to Earth.

After the launch, Ayn Rand wrote an essay describing her experience of
the event and her analysis of its moral-philosophical significance for
the present and future of civilization.

Later, in the last issue of her magazine, _The Objectivist_, Sept 1971,

"I have been asked to name my favorites among the articles I have
written for _The Objectivist_. They are: _Introduction to Objectivist
Epistemology_ ..., 'Apollo 11', and 'The Comprachicos.'

"_Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology_ is the outstanding one, in
terms of long-range importance. I love 'Apollo 11' for its literary
quality and its theme: in today's context, it was my one opportunity
to discuss a great event. 'The Comprachicos' was my grimmest and most
'humanitarian' task: it may help, I hope, to save young minds and
lives."

To entice the readers of this list who may not have read, or not
recently, the essay, "Apollo 11", I have compiled a set of excerpts
that capture the essence of what she thought about humanity's future
in space. (This essay is what inspired me, many years ago, to pursue,
possess, and promote the philosophy of astronautics.)

Monart
Starship Aurora http://www.starshipaurora.com>

~ * ~

Apollo 11, by Ayn Rand

_The Objectivist_, September 1969

[Excerpts]

[Ayn Rand began her essay with her vivid description of her arrival
at Cape Canavaral and of Apollo 11's lift-off.]

What did one feel afterward? An abnormal, tense overconcentration on
the commonplace necessities of the immediate moment, such as stumbling
over patches of rough gravel, running to find the appropriate guest bus.
One had to overconcentrate, because one knew that one did not give a
damn about anything, because one had no mind and no motivation left
for any immediate action. How do you descend from a state of pure
exaltation?

What we had seen, in naked essentials-but in reality, not in a work
of art-was the concretized abstraction of man's greatness.

The meaning of the sight lay in the fact that when those dark-red
wings of fire flared open, one knew that one was not looking at a
normal occurrence, but at a cataclysm which, if unleashed by nature,
would have wiped man out of existence-and one knew also that this
cataclysm was planned, unleashed and controlled by man, that this
unimaginable power was ruled by his power and, obediently serving
his purpose, was making way for a slender, rising craft. One knew
that this spectacle was not the product of inanimate nature, like
some aurora borealis, nor of chance, nor of luck, that it was
unmistakably human-with "human," for once, meaning grandeur-that
a purpose and a long, sustained, disciplined effort had gone to
achieve this series of moments, and that man was succeeding,
succeeding, succeeding! For once, if only for seven minutes,
the worst among those who saw it had to feel-not "How small is
man by the side of the Grand Canyon!"-but "How great is man and
how safe is nature when he conquers it!"

That we had seen a demonstration of man at his best, no one could
doubt-this was the cause of the event's attraction and of the
stunned, numbed state in which it left us. And no one could doubt
that we had seen an achievement of man in his capacity as a rational
being-an achievement of reason, of logic, of mathematics, of total
dedication to the absolutism of reality.
...

As to my personal reaction to the entire mission of Apollo 11, I can
express it best by paraphrasing a passage from Atlas Shrugged that
kept coming back to my mind: "Why did I feel that joyous sense of
confidence while watching the mission? In all of its giant course,
two aspects pertaining to the inhuman were radiantly absent: the
causeless and the purposeless. Every part of the mission was an
embodied answer to 'Why?' and 'What for?'-like the steps of a
life-course chosen by the sort of mind I worship. The mission was
a moral code enacted in space."
...

The fundamental significance of Apollo 11's triumph is not political;
it is philosophical; specifically, moral-epistemological.
...

The most inspiring aspect of Apollo 11's flight was that it made such
abstractions as rationality, knowledge, science, perceivable in direct,
immediate experience. That it involved a landing on another celestial
body was like a dramatist's emphasis on the dimensions of reason's
power:
it is not of enormous importance to most people that man lands on the
moon; but that man can do it, is.
...

Nothing on earth or beyond it is closed to the power of man's reason.
Yes, reason could solve human problems-but nothing else on earth or
beyond it, can.

This is the fundamental lesson to be learned from the triumph of
Apollo 11... If the lesson is learned in time, the flight of Apollo 11
will be the first achievement of a great new age; if not, it will be a
glorious lastnot forever, but for a long, long time to come.