Giving NASA a convergent set of objectives, as we did in the 1960s, is good. Would reaching for new heights be a waste of money? I don't think so. The space program, taking less than half a penny on the dollar in the federal budget, is no boondoggle. If NASA is anything, it's cash and resource-starved, forever at the whim of shortsighted politicians eager to divert money to local pork (to see what I mean, watch the merciless portrayal of a young Walter Mondale in the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, a caricature of many in Congress that can't be too far from reality). So again: renewed vigor in NASA is good. Turbocharging space exploration and related scientific research through regulated privatization, à la the Federal Aviation Administration is better. If success in the former can lead to faith in the latter, I'm satisfied.