Bring on the shuttle

Today's Launch minus 1 (day) Mission Management Team gave the Space Shuttle Discovery a Go for launch which is scheduled for tomorrow, December 7 at 8:35 PM Central Time. This will arguably be one of the most complex assembly missions of the International Space Station yet, and Molly's going to be right in the middle of it! Also, today NASA announced plans to build a permanent moon base. Exciting day!

Here is an Op. Ed. in USA Today from the NASA Administrator:

Opposing view: 15 cents a day - That’s what the space program costs each person in the USA.

USA Today (Opinion Page)
By Michael Griffin

America is a frontier nation. Two hundred years ago, the frontier was whatever Lewis & Clark would see the next day. One hundred years ago, it was in Alaska, labeled as "Seward's Folly" when it was purchased in 1867. Today, the human frontier is space, with the Apollo missions to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, the development of the International Space Station today, or future missions to build an outpost on the moon.

Our great-great-grandparents accepted the challenge of their frontier. Will today's generation do less? And if so, why? To save 15 cents per day? To save six-tenths of 1% of the federal budget? Because that is the cost to the average citizen of our nation's space program. Whether we wish to explore space or not, to say that we cannot afford space exploration is ridiculous.Almost four years ago, our nation faced some of the darkest days known to our space program with the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew.

In the months that followed, there was an extensive discourse concerning the lack of clear, coherent and compelling goals for the nation's human spaceflight program. We now have those goals. Congress has charged NASA to go beyond the International Space Station, to return to the moon.

Today's investments in space exploration are, like the Louisiana Purchase, a down payment on our future. We are focusing NASA's investments on key technologies that will enable our nation to bring the solar system into our economic sphere and for scientific discovery. The geography of our solar system dictates that our first, halting steps will be to the moon — three days journey away from Earth. A lunar outpost might follow soon afterward, allowing us to exploit the resources and vantage point of the moon.In the coming century, we must make important but careful investments of time, energy and resources when it comes to the exploration of space. Make no mistake: America is still a frontier nation. And space is today's frontier.

Michael Griffin is the NASA administrator.