Discovery...

Yesterday morning, the space shuttle Discovery launched after not only a two week delay, but a two and a half year delay.

This launch cost the taxpayers over one billion dollars. Every year NASA is given 15 billion dollars of tax payer money.

I for one can't think of a better way to spend it.

For every naysayer of manned space flight there are hundreds of other people who think we should continue to send humans out to explore space.

But why? Why bother? I'll tell you why. One of the things that drives the human spirit is the pursuit of the unknown. The desire to know more than we already know. The drive to become better that what we are. That is what makes humans great. We all have different opinions on things. Different political views. But yesterday there were millions of people who gathered together to watch these seven brave men and women strap themselves to 500,000 pounds of explosives and be thrown into a realm in which only a few dozen people have ever been before.

If you were to set aside any scientific value of spaceflight and you may have an even better argument against manned missions.

However manned spaceflight isn't only about science. It's about exploration. About our desire to find out 'what's out there?' People were asked why they climbed Mt. Everest. To that they responded 'because it's there.' Why should we send a manned mission to Mars and beyond?

Because it's there.

Space exploration has been a recurring theme in science fiction for years. It inspires the imagination of children and adults alike. It encourages kids to study math and science in hopes of becoming one of the elite few who get to go there. It brings us together in awe and wonder. If we can send a man to Mars, what else can we do?

Is it dangerous? Sure. In the last 20 years we lost 14 astronauts to space shuttle disasters. But what worth doing doesn't have an element of danger? Ask any of the families of those 14 - I'll say it - heroes if we should continue manned space flight. I guarantee you that you'd get a resounding 'YES!'

NASA and the space shuttle could be considered the pride of the United States. I contend that the space shuttle is the pride of Earth. Those seven people aboard Discovery have a little bit of each of us in them. Our amazement. Our wonder. Our pride.

To echo launch director Mike Leinbach, Good luck, and Godspeed Discovery.

(Launch photo credit NASA/Bill Ingalls)

UPDATE: NASA has indefinitely grounded the shuttle fleet because another piece of foam came off the external fuel tank. This piece missed Discovery, so she is in no danger. However as I heard on one radio show this morning, some at NASA think this might be the last shuttle flight. Ever.

It's sad if it is, but hopefully someone will be able to develop a new and improved reusable space craft for the near future.

I wonder, though. Why don't they just build the tank inside out? You know, with the metal on the outside and the foam to keep the liquid hydrogen and oxygen cool on the inside? Or at least add another layer of metal.