Fly me to the moon

The safe return of the shuttle Discovery from space last week was by no means assured 2 1/2 years after Columbia plummeted disastrously from the sky.

Problems with the Discovery's thermal tile filler led one of the astronauts to perform a sky-walking repair job on the shuttle's belly. NASA's concerns that the filler could overheat during re-entry underscored the lesson learned from Columbia.

As accustomed as we've become to women and men in space, the proposition remains a fragile one, dangerous from beginning to end.

The debate continues over whether robots could gather much the same information and remove the risk of human lives. But just try wringing billions out of Congress for adventures piloted by R2D2.

Just as Discovery was landing came news that in 2008 or 2009 the company that sent the first tourists to the International Space Station plans to offer trips around the moon for $100 million -- for the traveler who has seen everything.