National Perspective: The optimism of space exploration

VERO BEACH, Fla. — I saw it lift into the dusky heavens, reaching upward in a stunning ballet of determination and grace, creeping across the sky in an orange streak, stretching toward Earth's orbit. And somehow, the rise of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket defied the notion that there is no revelation in repetition.

Americans have been launching rockets from Florida for 73 years; the first one was on July 24, 1950, a date hardly anyone marks or even is aware of. Since Project Apollo, which catapulted men to the moon, ended 48 years ago, and the eclipse of the space shuttle, which mounted 135 missions, spaceflight has prompted a certain ennui. The days when a black-and-white television atop a tall metal tower was wheeled into classrooms for schoolchildren to witness a Project Mercury launch have become a fading memory, like the lyrics of a Shelley Fabares song.