Don't let space program die

NASA was forced to postpone the launch of the space shuttle Discovery last week because of a hydrogen leak in the external fuel tank. That means Americans — those who are actually paying attention — will have to wait a few more weeks for the 39th, and final, mission of this spacecraft. But the end of the entire shuttle program is inevitable and rapidly approaching, scheduled for next spring.

From then on, the United States won't have its own manned space program. There will still be U.S. astronauts, but they will have to rely on Russian Soyuz rockets to take them up.

For a nation that once invested its national pride and prestige in beating the Soviet Union to the moon and to space supremacy, that ought to be unthinkable. It would be tolerable only if the next manned program was well underway and ready for rapid deployment. But while NASA officials speak optimistically of having something ready in five or six years, space exploration clearly is not the priority of the current administration, and all NASA has right now are indefinable dreams.

Most Americans probably aren't aware that the United States is going to have to hitchhike on Russian rockets. But then, Americans seem to have lost their enthusiasm for space flight.

That's not hard to understand. The current administration can't seem to articulate any enthusiastic plan, either. The biggest space-related story in recent weeks came when the director of NASA's Ames Research Center in California let slip talk of a new program that would send astronauts to colonize planets, such as Mars, with the thought that they would never return to earth. Even a mission such as that might have to rely on some form of propulsion that has yet to be invented — perhaps some form of solar power or a fusion reactor.

Maybe a flux capacitor?

It's good to dream big and have an inventive spirit. It's better to have a workable plan.

Back in 1957, when the Soviets launched the first man-made satellite, military experts had trouble imagining its usefulness. They said it would amount to nothing because you can't drop bombs from outter space.

They couldn't imagine joggers using watches that track distance and speed using satellites, cell phones that transmit video instantly, satellite television images, Google Earth or a host of other benefits that eventually came from space exploration.