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Back to Earth
A Times Editorial
Published August 10, 2005
The nation breathed a collective sigh of relief Tuesday as the space shuttle Discovery glided safely back to Earth in the first flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster. With the astronauts home from a test flight that turned into a trouble-plagued mission, it's time for NASA to reassess the shuttle program and the future for manned flight.
Discovery reinforced two points. NASA has not licked the trouble with falling debris that can doom an orbiter during launch. And the astronauts once again proved exceptionally agile at fixing unforeseen problems in-flight. This is a dangerous combination if courage and hubris cloud what should be a clear vision for the role and risks of the space program. Was it worth sending seven people into space to show a damaged craft with no real purpose beyond servicing the international space station could return safely home?
The agency in charge of fulfilling President Bush's goal of sending humans to the moon and beyond revealed to an alarming degree how much, even in the 21st century, the astronauts' lives could hinge on everything from luck and duct tape to home-made knives. That danger seems unwarranted, certainly for narrow scientific goals and when the unmanned space program has had such fabulous success in opening an eye to what lies beyond the frontier of space. Space travel has risks, but Americans will accept them if they see real value for the human and financial costs.
[Last modified August 10, 2005, 00:37:16]
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