NASA’s space shuttle program is set to end this Friday. The shuttle Atlantis will make its final flight into space. When it returns, human flight through space will come to an end.

The space shuttle had its problems. It was a craft that was supposed to justify itself. So when payloads from the Air Force and other agencies were not forthcoming, NASA was forced to invent payloads of its own to justify the project. The expectations of flight frequency were not met, and instead of continuing our voyage into the far reaches of our solar system, we confined ourselves to orbiting Earth.

The shuttle program has always been bogged down by bureaucracy and political squabbling, and is now being cut largely because of budgetary issues. But the shuttle program still had this going for it: because of it, men were able to boldly go where no man had gone before.

What could be more inspiring or feel more liberating than lifting out of Earth’s gravity into weightlessness or thrusting toward the moon, or Mars, or the great beyond?

The current generation of undergraduates has its own problems to face. Space exploration may not be among them. And that is fine. What is really disturbing, however, is the complacency with which we have treated a national project that, back in the day, everyone participated in.

We seem to just somehow expect that other people will take care of our problems. Private industry will explore space for the sake of exploring space and gaining scientific knowledge about the world around us. President Obama will, despite having no legislative authority, fix our budgetary crisis. Maybe our parents will call our professors to bitch them out for giving us the failing grades we deserve and teaching challenging classes.

The point is this: we should look for challenges, and conquer them, wherever they be and however dangerous they be.