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Representative Dave Weldon, Republican from Florida and co-chair of the House Aerospace Caucus, foresees a catfight in Congress over any new space expenditures, especially in an era of again ballooning deficits. "The people who opposed space-flight funding are going to come forward again and voice concerns that we should spend the money on something else," he says. "But we are a nation of explorers, and we'll continue to explore the unknown."
Whether we will is impossible to know. The space station has long been a fiscal black hole, and with the eventual cost of the massive outpost projected to top $100 billion, NASA is not likely to abandon it without a mighty fight. The three crewmen currently on board--two Americans and a Russian--have a Soyuz re-entry vehicle aboard, and both the U.S. and Russia have the wherewithal to go fetch them if that should fail. But once they're gone, will anyone be back? The space station can't operate without the shuttle to service it, and with 40% of the tiny shuttle fleet--not to mention 14 lives--now claimed by explosions, it may become indefensible to fly the ship.
And yet the U.S. is stubborn when it comes to space. Only 21 months after the Apollo 1 fire took the lives of three astronauts in 1967, NASA was flying again. The recovery time for the Challenger disaster was longer but still less than three years. Americans have suffered a lot of loss and hung a lot of crape since September of 2001, and war drums beating, they are likely to hang still more. Nations, like people, can sometimes grow too tired to be brave. At the same time, doing one thing--and doing it exceedingly well--can be a remarkable tonic. In the bright nights of the Apollo flights, Americans did that one great thing. With the right will, they could do it again. --Reported by Deborah Fowler/Houston; Greg Fulton/Atlanta; Cathy Booth-Thomas/Nacogdoches; Jerry Hannifin/Cape Canaveral; John F. Dickerson, Sally Donnelly, Eric Roston, Elaine Shannon, Mark Thompson, Karen Tumulty and Doug Waller/Washington; and David Bjerklie and Alice Park/New York; with other bureaus