Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/726276
8 The PCB Design Magazine • September 2016 If this doesn't make you feel like a "seasoned citizen," I don't know what will: Star Trek first aired 50 years ago, on Sept. 8, 1966. What were you doing at the time? I was probably trying to avoid eating my peas. But I loved Star Trek; I thought it was a live TV show that followed a spacecraft. No one—not even the actors—thought the show would last, and it only ran for three sea- sons, drawing average ratings. But Captain Kirk and company are more popular than ever on their Golden Anniversary. Star Trek tapped into our primal need to know more about our uni- verse. Much has changed since 1966. Fifty years ago, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were en- gaged in the Cold War, fighting a proxy war in Vietnam and racing to get the first man on the moon. But later the U.S. partnered with Russia on numerous space missions. I guess you could call our two countries "frenemies" now, which might be the best-case scenario. Most of the world has abandoned their space programs. But the U.S. plans to keep exploring the "final frontier," even as NASA adjusts to budgetary restraints. NASA is indeed tightening its belt; the agency's $19 billion budget request for the fiscal year 2017 is $300 million lower than the previous year's enacted budget. That figure still amounts to only about half of 1% of the total U.S. budget. It's difficult to put a dollar figure on the benefits of a space program. Just looking at it from an educational standpoint, I wonder how many young people by Andy Shaughnessy I-CONNECT007 Space: Still the Final Frontier THE SHAUGHNESSY REPORT Image: fanpop.com