Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 not only thrilled movie audiences by taking them back to man’s reach for the moon; it also recalled an era when America faced a goal boldly and accepted nothing short of success.

That commitment is woven through America’s decades spent in space. While the glory of the moon missions has faded into memory and the routine of the space shuttle no longer attracts widespread attention, our space triumphs have given us reasons for pride every day for 50 years.

But for how much longer? Discovery landed yesterday after a 15-day mission to the International Space Station. Three flights remain before the space shuttle program expires in September.

The next step was to have been a return to more ambitious manned flight, including lunar missions that would have been a springboard to human footprints on Mars.

We should have been on Mars 20 years ago. But a nation wrapped up in Vietnam and the usual full plate of domestic concerns lost sight of the value of man on other worlds. That probably happened the moment we officially beat the Russians to the lunar surface. Three Apollo missions were canceled to make way for a manned space station (Skylab) and the fledgling shuttle program.

But as President Barack Obama visited the hallowed ground in Florida where every American astronaut has left the planet, his vision did not include a desire for man’s next great leap.

Project Constellation is dead. This bold vision, the first step in extending the human habitat to the moon and beyond, has been cut from the next budget year.

Nine billion dollars down the drain, spent on researching and planning the vehicles that could have captured the imagination of the next generation of kids and, more concretely, could have provided scientific, economic and strategic benefits to delight even the most frugal conservative.

My conservatism guides me to a very short list of things taxpayers should fund. Private sector space exploration is a worthy goal, but until then, is it wise to put our space program in mothballs while the Russians and Chinese drool at the prospect of equaling and even surpassing American space prowess?

Even if stories of Teflon and calculators have grown long in the tooth, there are still great benefits to be gleaned from human space exploration. And if those leave you lukewarm, consider the dangers of failing to keep pace. The crusty ex-cold warriors of Russia and the still-steadfast communists of China will be more than happy to rack up achievements in the next frontier while we pay them millions to carry our astronauts aloft for whatever meager tasks we may concoct.

I’m not predicting an arms race in orbit. I expect unreliable nations to do what unreliable nations do when no one restrains them.

There is something obscene about this White House telling us something is too expensive. The Constellation price tag is a tiny percentage of the vast bailouts and stimulus packages dancing in the heads of today’s leaders of both parties.

After an explosion on the way to the moon, the Apollo 13 crew came home safely 40 years ago this month. Commander Jim Lovell never got to walk on the moon. He has joined the first man who did, Neil Armstrong, and the last, Eugene Cernan, in calling for a renewal of the kind of spirit that can contribute to a better America and a wiser human race.

I was 11 when we first landed on the moon. I thought I might do it myself someday. My son turns 7 tomorrow. I hope he grows up in a country that appreciates the value of expanding the scope of human experience into the universe beyond our planet.

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