Whatever happened to the space program? Moon landings? Manned probes to the outer planets? Have we given up finding use for them? Do our solutions turn inwards, or are we so troubled with immediate threats that we can’t even look up anymore?

Almost 40 years ago, a man first walked on the moon. That man is now 78 years old.
The last men to walk on the moon are Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan. They are now 72 and 74 years old, respectively. Both long retired.

The average life expectancy for males in the US (and let’s not forget that no woman, or black man, have walked on the moon) is 75. Granted, as rich white men all three will probably (and in Armstrong’s case, already) exceed the average, but it means that in a handful of years there will be no man living that has walked on the moon. No other moon walks are planned. Only vanity flights into low earth orbit now remain to fund these excursions, and these never get even as far as space-walking.

And so the future turns into history without ever happening.