I heard a commentator on NPR last night arguing that NASA's space shuttle program should be abandoned, as two fatal crashes in 17 years was an unacceptable record on safety. I totally disagree. If it was a military program, such as a fighter jet, then absolutely that would be the case. But in the military, the men and women flying those jets are enlisted, and that is their duty assignment. They have no choice. If you're enlisted in the airforce and you're a pilot, you're going to be flying the plane that your commanding officer tells you to fly. Now granted, you have the option of not enlisting in the airforce, or not being a military test pilot, but a soldier is a soldier, and it's about following orders once you're there.

With the Space Program, we're dealing with astronaughts. Space flight is inherently risky. I heard that at the first launch, NASA wasn't quite sure if the rocket was going to blow up on the launchpad. And, once they got the manned craft to the moon, getting them back was purely theoretical. If you're an astronaught, you are aware that each and every mission could very well be your last. That's called courage. Incredible courage that not many of us are capable of. If, in the wake of the Columbia tragedy, folks dropped out of the astronaught training program in droves, then absolutely the space program would have to be abandoned. I doubt that that is the case.

America needs a frontier. It's in our character.

Also, we've had too much in the way of national tragedy so far in this century. We need a significant national accomplishment to celebrate. Something tangible, concrete, and self-evident as a major accomplishment. I think that the space program alone could provide us with that.