THE COLUMBIA IS LOST, but what remains are all the things that make us human: our grief, our sympathy for the families of the astronauts and the larger family of NASA–and our darker impulses as well. It never takes long for shallow souls to use such an event to promote their own agendas. Already we hear some voices clamoring to blame Congress or the Bush administration for denying NASA adequate funding, while others are saying we should just get blunderbuss government out of all this and privatize space exploration completely. And of course, Saddam Hussein’s minions were quick to call the Columbia’s fate a sign of “God’s vengeance” against America.

But appropriate questions are being asked as well: Whether it still makes sense to continue the shuttle program, and what NASA’s long-term goals should be. Many believe the shuttle program should now be scrapped, or at least scaled back, and our focus shifted to grander goals, such as establishing a moon base, or completing a manned mission to Mars. Charles Krauthammer provided some provocative answers to these questions in our magazine two years ago (his piece is posted on The Daily Standard today).