Thursday afternoon, the Space Shuttle Discovery will lift off from Cape Canaveral for the 39th and final time.

The launch had been scheduled for Tuesday at 2:52 p.m., but was delayed at least 24 hours so engineers could troubleshoot a problem with one of the orbiter’s main engine controllers. 

We’re all huge space geeks, and with the mothballing of the shuttle program commencing upon Discovery’s return, today is a somber day.

The space shuttle program is a monument unto itself, a symbol of humanity’s aspiration and ingenuity. We, the hairless monkey, have not only mastered the art of launching ourselves off the planet, we have established residency in the sky.

Mission STS-133 carries with it, among other things, Robonaut 2 — an upgrade of the robots they use to carry out extra-vehicular [read: space-walking] tasks via remote control.

What, you didn’t know NASA had remote-controlled humanoid robots working alongside our astronauts? How’s this for you — the folks at the Robonaut program have a goal of landing one on the moon within the next thousand days, and it looks like Boba Fett. They’re calling it “Project M.”

You’d be forgiven, though, if this news has eluded you, what, with Christine O’Donnell’s witchin’ days being deemed more newsworthy.

Still, some of us are old enough to remember the U.S.S.R.

Had you told someone in 1989 that in less than 20 years we’d be hitching rides to the space station with the Ruskies, they’d probably report you for treason.

And say what you will about the Cowboy President — at least he was trying to get us back to the moon. We were genuinely excited for the Orion program, and not just because of the goofy smile Dubya would crack every time he said the words “moon base.”

Space exploration pushes the boundaries of human achievement. Discovery is something that still fascinates us — human discovery. Robots don’t sign autographs.

Always remember boys and girls — America is the only country ever to set foot on the Moon, and we’ve done that six times. Touchdown.

The space program is one of the cornerstones of American public education. No six year old wants to grow up to be an accountant.

Astronauts are the mascots of NASA, and for good reason.

Not that we aren’t stoked for space tourism, it’s just that paying your way into space isn’t quite the same as earning it. We remember that Lance Bass from ‘N Sync is a certified cosmonaut every time we hear about plans to blast off NASA astronauts in the commie capsule, and it makes us sad.

If you haven’t been to Kennedy Space Center in Florida or to Johnson Space Center in Houston, here’s our glowing endorsement. You simply can’t appreciate the scale of our space program until you’ve seen it for yourself.

What does the decline of the space program say about us? Have we given up hope?

We don’t think that we’ve given up hope; it’s just that the high our country rode from the ’70s to the late ’90s is over. For now anyway, we’re stuck here, on the same old rock, with the same old problems.

The stars are still giving the human race what they’ve been giving us since we first raised our eyes to the heavens — hope.

Hope that maybe, someday, we can get out of here.