The U.S. space shuttle program has made a less-than-glorious return to America’s front pages. The program that once was the pride of the nation now is so troubled that it was suspended before Discovery could even complete its current mission.

But, even with all the problems, America shouldn’t give up on manned space flight.

After a number of delays, NASA officials watched Discovery lift off last week, only to witness a piece of flying foam similar to the one that damaged heat tiles and led to the loss of the Columbia shuttle and its crew in February 2003. This was the first shuttle flight since that tragic explosion, and it was disheartening to see the same hazard crop up again.

At first, it was believed the foam caused no damage, but a new inspection process, instituted as a hedge against another shuttle disaster, revealed filler material sticking out between the heat tiles on Discovery’s belly. Was it a problem? NASA officials didn’t know, but they were concerned enough that astronaut Stephen Robinson was scheduled to try to remove the protruding material in a space walk this morning.

Bringing the Discovery astronauts safely back to Earth, of course, is the primary concern. After that is accomplished, NASA personnel must decide how to regroup. Perhaps it’s time to retire the shuttle fleet permanently. But if NASA takes that action, it has to outline the next steps that will allow America to continue its exploration of space. It’s a matter both of satisfying our human curiosity and ensuring our national security.

Exploring space isn’t just a way to acquire knowledge for knowledge’s sake. Technology developed for the space program has been put to use in many other fields. Satellites now orbiting the Earth are vital to our system of communication and observation.

Many people see the U.S. space program as primarily an effort to reach outward to the great beyond. That’s important, but perhaps even more important to our everyday lives are the observations space technology allows us to make of our own planet. Climatic data such as soil moisture can be measured from space. Troop movements and weapons installations can be monitored.

It’s true that many of these goals can be accomplished through unmanned satellites, but to give up on manned flight would be a mistake for a couple of reasons. First, it would deny our natural urge to reach out to parts unknown and accomplish new feats. Second, whatever is going on in outer space, the United States needs to be a part of it, if for no other reason than to keep an eye on what representatives of other countries are doing there. The United States may not be able to control space, but it needs to be in the game.

It’s disappointing that, even after more than two years of supposed NASA study and improvements, the current Discovery mission is being plagued by some of the same problems that doomed Columbia. It’s good that NASA engineers have provided new ways for astronauts to compensate for or correct the flaws, but it would be far better if they could eliminate those flaws.

At this point, job one is to bring Discovery safely back to Earth. All of America will be eagerly awaiting a safe touchdown Monday. The problems on the current mission certainly argue for a vigorous re-examination of the shuttle program, but the end to the current shuttle program shouldn’t come before the nation establishes new goals that will allow it to expand its exploration and technological mastery of space.