There are few things that we can be as proud of as Americans as winning the space race and putting the first men on the moon.

At our best, we have a fixation on the horizon — a burning need to explore, to see what lies beyond. It’s an urge that is deeply ingrained in our culture — we are the product of explorers, from sea to shining sea.

Of course, the exploitation that followed that exploration every step of the way is something that tends to trouble modern sensibilities. But that doesn’t change the cultural impact of that initial tug: that errant thought, “what’s over there?”

It was inevitable that, with our terrestrial frontiers expended, we would turn our eyes towards the heavens. America took a break from space to forge new, digital frontiers, but as that wonder faded and our cynicism swelled, it’s past time for us to return to our halting steps to the stars.

Let’s not ignore the Earthly concerns. Space has become an area of national security, ranging from the commonplace (our satellite network) to the terrifying (theoretical space-based weapons platforms aiming down).

Space also holds the keys to our rapacious hunger for readily available resources. Think gold is valuable? Not likely after we gain access to an entire asteroid largely composed of the stuff.

We aren’t kidding, by the way — that’s a real object, called 16 Psyche, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is believed to contain enough gold and other precious minerals to be worth quintillions of dollars in today’s market values.

There’s problems with that, of course. NASA has an unmanned vehicle en route to explore 16 Psyche, estimated to arrive in 2029, but there is a huge difference between an unmanned vehicle and a manned flight — see also how many years it’s taken us to return to the moon, and that’s in our own backyard, by comparison.

Alternatively, we could hypothetically develop the technology to mine the stuff remotely and bring it home…but we haven’t even been able to successfully accomplish that on Mars yet, let alone something as far away as 16 Psyche.

Still, these are just a few of the concrete reasons to praise a renewed focus on space flight.

There are plenty of more esoteric ones, as well — that pesky sense of national pride ranking highly among them.

An extensive report from Pew Research in 2023 has a few things to say on the matter, such as that almost 70 percent of Americans viewed it as “essential” that “the U.S. continues to be a world leader in space.” Pew also noted that this support was shared by both Republicans and Democrats. 72 percent of Republicans and 69 percent of Democrats hold the view that the U.S. “should be a world leader in space exploration,” according to Pew.

Think about that.

Obviously you will never get all people to agree. Heck, there is a fraction of people today who still consider the original moon landing a conspiracy.

But roughly 70 percent, across party, in today’s divided climate? Clearly this is something that we, as Americans, consider valuable and a core part of our national identity.

We need things like that. We need to be brought together as a people; to have something to unite around and rally with.

Exploration, a reflection of the freedom that we hold so dear, is a fantastic anchor for that sentiment.

We hope that future administrations can agree that our space program is something to be cherished, protected and rewarded — a field in which Democrats, historically, lag behind Republicans.

However, we also hope to see NASA fully and appropriately funded, eventually. Both parties have a habit of raiding NASA’s budget any time they run into a more politically-expedient challenge elsewhere, and that lost funding is rarely, if ever, returned to the program.

As with other things throughout life, when something is lost, it is rare indeed that it make a return — therefore, it becomes ever-more important to safeguard what we still have left.

In this case, nothing less than our national pride is at stake — and quite a bit more.