Even with Washington submerged in red ink, it would be historically shortsighted to give up on decades of U.S. leadership in space travel and exploration.
A presidential commission led by retired Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine says NASA would need $3 billion more a year over the next decade for manned exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. That represents less than 0.1 percent of the federal budget.
Of course, NASA could save money if it settled only for robotic space exploration. But while robots are an essential and cost-effective part of America's space program, history shows that manned exploration better captures the public imagination as it extends the limits of human experience. Its greater technological challenges are a sharper spur to innovation, a key component in leadership in the global economy of the 21st century.
Despite the delay in building a new manned vehicle, NASA should not prolong the life of the space shuttle past its scheduled retirement in the next couple of years. Yes, thousands of good jobs on Florida's Space Coast will be lost when the shuttle is grounded, and it is regrettable policymakers didn't plan better.
Maintaining the shuttle, however, would eat into money for a successor and create further delays.
Of the Augustine commission's options for exploration, the preferable one calls for NASA to aim beyond the moon to successively more distant locations, including asteroids and Martian moons, in preparation for ultimately landing on the red planet. A focus on reaching new destinations is more likely to lead to technological breakthroughs.
The commission is right that the United States could reduce costs and strengthen its international relationships by enlisting other countries in this mission. It also makes sense to extend the life of the station - which won't even be complete before next year - past 2016 to at least 2020. And the job of carrying cargo, and eventually astronauts, to the station should be turned over as soon as possible to commercial space companies.