The space program, he saw now, was a prime symptom of all this. What use was any of it? The much-lauded spin-offs were minimal and probably would have come about anyhow, if the need was there. NASA’s continuing obsession with manned flight had distorted the whole organization, the direction of other programs. Space initiatives which might have done some good down on Earth — science projects, Earth resources studies — had all been subordinated to the operational needs of the manned missions. An unmanned mission wouldn’t even be approved if it didn’t support the manned effort more or less directly — or worse, if it indicated that humans might not be necessary in space…

NASA had lobbied to go to Mars, he began to see, in order to justify itself, to keep its huge teams together, after the great lunar effort wound down.

Of course, releasing NASA’s funds to other, Earthbound projects would have been a token gesture. The money would have seeped away, Seger was sure, with no tangible benefit. But that wasn’t the point. The space program was like a huge, spindly, etiolated plant, pushing all its energy obsessively into one sickly Mars red bloom, while the society in which its roots were anchored was steadily disintegrating.

It just wasn’t appropriate. Any more than had been the overambitious civilian nuclear program, the weapons buildup…

To Seger, the Mars mission came to seem almost blasphemous.

A new clarity entered his thoughts as he shaped these ideas. A new determination.

Of course he knew that he was still reacting to Apollo-N. His thoughts would be structured by that defining incident for the rest of his life. Perhaps, in fact, he was still in some mild form of shock. It didn’t matter. Truth remained truth, no matter what the form of the revelation, and he felt he was on his own road to Damascus, seeing the space program from the outside, in its true perspective, for the first time in his working life.

He found great comfort in his new perception.

The next time he attended Mass, he asked the priest if he could give a sermon. Mission Elapsed Time [Day/Hr:Min:Sec] Plus 313/11:33:22