U.S. is back in space, with an eye on the future

For a while, U.S. space travel became casual -- with tragic results. No more.
The U.S. space program approached what was accepted as routine in the 1990s with the successful launch Tuesday of the space shuttle Discovery. The shuttle is in a safe orbit, docked with the international space station. The crew of the station will be back up to three for the first time since U.S. shuttles were grounded following the loss of the Columbia in 2003.
Still, NASA is taking nothing for granted. Liftoff of the 4.5 million-pound craft was postponed until July 4 because of weather and to allow NASA engineers an opportunity to study the implications of the loss of a piece of foam insulation that weighed a faction of an ounce.
A 1 pound piece of foam damaged the wing of Columbia on takeoff, resulting in the disintegration of the ship as it returned to earth from a mission Feb. 21, 2003.
Space travel is an unavoidably dangerous endeavor. But NASA's critics pointed out that it appeared the agency had become complacent in the 17 years between the loss of the first shuttle, the Challenger, and the Columbia disaster.
No longer alone
Everyone at NASA today must know that an error in judgment that resulted in the loss of another vehicle would set the U.S. space program back decades -- and at a time when other nations, notably China and Japan, are making their own moves into space.
The shuttle's days are numbered. The aging fleet is scheduled to be retired in 2010. It was saved only because it was needed to complete construction of the international space station. Smaller Russian rockets were used to support a two man crew on the station, but only the shuttle can support a three-person crew and provide construction material.
The mission
During its 12-day mission, Discovery will off-load 5,000 pounds of material and will provide the station with its third crewman, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter. Reiter of Germany is the first European to live on the space station and will stay for six months.
The shuttle crew will also conduct spacewalks necessary to test procedures for repairing a shuttle in space if one were damaged during a future launch.
Despite the two tragedies that marred the shuttle's history, it has been an awe-inspiring program, exceeded only by NASA's early successes, including the successful moon landings.
What's ahead
But the shuttle is one of only five vehicles in the NASA fleet. Other rockets are used to send smaller payloads into space. And new vehicles will be developed for a proposed U.S. return to the moon in 2020, and then an expedition to Mars.
The dividends paid by the space program have been enormous. It has fueled advances in science, technology and medicine -- advances that would never have been otherwise achieved and have improved American life in countless ways.
Space exploration is one of the things that helped make the United States a leader in technology. To paraphrase an old advertising slogan, progress has been its most important product.