OPINION:
NASA’s Artemis II crew, recently returned to Earth from a 10-day swing around the moon, checked the obligatory boxes of identity inclusivity: experience in space, military service and scientific expertise.
Three men and a woman, three White astronauts and one Black, three Americans and a foreign national, rounded out their combined credentials.
When the planet’s premier space agency launches teams to establish humanity’s first colonies on distant planets, though, the red, white and blue emblazoned on the rocket’s nose cone should be matched by quintessentially American values tattooed on their hearts: faith, family and freedom.
These core qualities may evoke the “Make America Great Again” mantra, but long before Donald Trump appeared, they laid the foundation for the unparalleled prosperity that has blossomed on the North American continent since a few shiploads of intrepid pilgrims landed on its trackless shores.
If human beings are to plant new habitats upon the even more foreboding terrain of barren space orbs, then their exertions ought to be propelled by these proven drivers of human achievement.
To be sure, NASA already has a lengthy record of success in selecting the best of the best to face the darkness and desolation of space.
Yet even a lengthy deployment aboard the orbiting International Space Station has always come with the option of a swift return trip to Earth. For future astronauts tasked with building bases on the moon and Mars, the opportunity for a convenient homecoming becomes more remote in proportion to distance.
While travel time to the moon is measured in days, a 140-million-mile journey to Mars requires the better part of a year.
Forging the steel for nerves steady enough to endure the solitude of space requires the enduring fires of faith. No technical skill or practiced know-how can substitute for the unwavering assurance in the guiding hand of the Almighty, pointing the way to a new promised land somewhere out there.
With a conviction no less sustaining than that of the sojourners who gave thanks for their deliverance upon the shores of the New World, U.S. astronauts who save the co-pilot’s seat for God can blast off assured that Providence has already plotted their destination.
As natural as the pairing of proton and electron, the family unit must invariably form the coupling among male and female spacefarers.
Human progress, after all, has always been undergirded by the well-being of civilization that family life provides. In its absence, the loneliness that crushes unfortunate souls on Earth will surely intensify a million miles from home.
Moreover, the personal courage required of astronauts committed to an extraterrestrial existence must be alloyed with a hope for the future that only family-based child rearing can inspire. There can be no room for the pessimistic self-doubts that modern Earthlings harbor when they cringe at the thought of bringing children into this imperfect world.
Clearly, space families must be made of sterner stuff.
A lust for freedom, coupled with the daring desire to spurn the beaten path, must animate NASA’s brightest when they challenge an environment bereft of the familiar blessings of life on Earth. The well-worn cliche of thinking “outside the box” is due for an extreme makeover by adventurers who will do their thinking “outside the biosphere.”
If space is to become the breeding ground for a new emphasis on faith, family and freedom, then future space trekkers may prove to be more “American” in their adherence to core values than those who proudly wave the flag from the safety of terra firma.
Sadly, across the fruited plains, those values are tarnishing. From 1975 to 2022, the share of Americans attending religious services at least once a week declined from 35% to 22%, according to a 2025 Heritage Foundation survey.
The importance of the family is also losing its luster. Since 1970, the proportion of U.S. adults who are married has dropped from 69% to 50%, according to the 2025 Pew Research Center. Meanwhile, the average number of children born to American women has fallen from three to two.
Freedom, as well, is under siege in modern America. The World Population Review’s 2026 Freedom Index places the United States in a less-than-impressive 15th place among the planet’s nations, trailing such dubious exemplars of liberty as the Czech Republic and Taiwan.
Still, with its 250th anniversary milestone on the horizon, America has reason to hope that the historical spirit of exploration will be revitalized. NASA plans for its astronauts to inhabit the moon by 2028 and, with luck, send them to Mars by the early 2030s.
As Americans anticipate future adventures as the world’s first space pioneers, they should salute the fact that their proud identity is built upon the attributes that have launched their success: faith, family and freedom.
• Frank Perley is a former senior editor and editorial writer for Opinion at The Washington Times.
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