When I’m on the road, waiting for planes and sitting on tarmacs and taxi-ways means reading USA Today more than I usually do.

Which is how I came upon an op/ed in Wednesday’s edition by John Lehman, former Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration, titled, “The New Space Race.”

NASA has been a favorite punching bag of politicians, pundits and special interest groups. Some scry a lack of devotion to fighting global warming — controversy assisted recently by NASA chief Michael Griffin’s comment that he was not sure it was ‘a problem we must wrestle with.’ Others see in NASA’s commitment to manned space exploration a misplaced romaticism, while still others deplore a lack of emphasis on basic science. The question of whether we will remain in a leader in the exploration of space exploration, however, if too important to leave to special interest groups or pundits.

Lehman goes on to detail Chinese, Japanese, and Indian efforts to get into space, and the important objectives that each nation hopes to accomplish. He argues that American leadership in space is at serious risk and makes a compelling case that returning to the moon and reclaiming our leadership has crucial technical and commercial benefits.

I’m sold.

Not too long ago, I had the chance to visit Kennedy Space Center in Florida. While there, I attended a briefing from a NASA official on the future of the U.S. manned space program. With only a few missions left before the Shuttle fleet is retired, NASA is planning a return to old-fashioned rocketry for its new moon program. But between the shuttles’ retirement and the eventual roll out of the new rocket fleet, there will be a period of several years where the U.S. will have no vehicle for manned space flight.

My fear is that we never will again. Once the regular manned flights stop, I fear that NASA opponents in Congress will succeed in permanently scuttling our manned space program.

There are countless compelling arguments in favor of the American space program. Lehman presents a number. There are others. And in this age where it seems that the government can funding for every conceivable program, it’s shameful that NASA has to crawl on its knees every year to avoid further cuts. It’s time for us to get serious. NASA engineers bested President Kennedy’s goal of putting a man on the moon in ten years with ingenuity and attitude.

To be sure, as Lehman observes, “The drive to explore the moon today is different from the Cold War sprint that ended when Armstrong descended to the Sea of Tranquility in 1969.” But the drive should still be there. The potential benefits are limitless, including the most important benefit of all — the expansion of human knowledge and understanding of our universe. Let’s go.

Cam: 20 years ago, I wanted to be an astronaut. And because my mom is a kind and loving mom, she actually sent me to SpaceCamp in Huntsville, Alabama for a week. I had a blast. In fact, I had so much fun and learned so much that she sent me back the next year.

Eventually, as I got older, I realized that I did not have the science and math proficiency to become an astronaut. But I’ve always had a soft spot for manned space programs, and I’d love to see a return to the Moon. I’d love to see a mission to Mars even more, because it seems like going back to the Moon is kind of re-inventing the wheel… but then again, maybe the wheel does need to be re-invented.

Regardless, I can’t imagine not having a manned space program in this country. I think it’s appalling that it’s even a possibility.

Marshall: When I wrote this yesterday on the plane, I completely forgot that the Space Shuttle Atlantis was scheduled to go into space last night. It did, indeed, lift off on time and is now chasing down the International Space Station.

Jim: Hey, why is it all that different from the Cold War era? Could you come up with a clearer canary-in-the-coal-mine symbol of American decline than the idea that we have left manned exploration of space to the Indians and Chinese? If you were a young aspring astronaut like Cam was– a great engineering mind from any country — would you rather work at NASA, or in the Chinese, Indian, Japanese or other space agency that is still sending people up there? Would you rather operate a Mars Rover by joystick, or risk everything for a shot at glory at being the first man or woman to step onto another planet?

(Having said that, the private development of space travel is growing by leaps and bounds. Maybe American private industry and space tourism will lead mankind’s steps into the final frontier…)

However, let me acknowledge that perhaps I have underestimated NASA’s accomplishments in recent years. As Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee asked in a visit to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “Did the Mars Pathfinder probe manage to photograph the flag that astronaut Neil Armstrong had left behind?”