Space shuttle launches and landings in recent years had become so commonplace that they have received little media attention, unlike the early days of the space program in the 1960s when every flight into space was a national event. As our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the seven astronauts, the tragedy also has opened a national conversation about the future of NASA.

As we know from news accounts, NASA has faced myriad challenges in the past several years, including budget constraints and an aging workforce. In fact, the U. S. General Accounting Office released a report last month that NASA faces “critical losses” of trained workers in the coming years due to retirements. The report found that the average age of the NASA workforce is over 45, with the over-60 engineers, scientists, and high-technology workers outnumbering the under-30 workers nearly three to one. This troubling statistic is evidence of NASA’s overall difficulty in hiring young people in these fields. The report also found that currently 15 percent of NASA’s science and engineering employees are eligible to retire, and within five years that number will jump to 25 percent. The drain on the NASA workforce is compounded by the narrowing pipeline of workers with science and engineering backgrounds graduating from our colleges and universities.

Clearly, NASA is at a crossroads. We now must ask what we want from our space program and in which direction we would like it to go. Many question why we spend national resources on space exploration at all. As Rensselaer students, you know intuitively the need to explore and understand the universe, and how this endeavor enlarges our intellectual frontiers. Over the years, the space program has given us concrete results as well, with advances in communications, electronics, and meteorology, to name a few areas.

Space exploration also speaks to an ancient human drive to discover new frontiers and to know as much as possible about the vast universe. Columbia astronaut Dr. Kalpana Chawla said she was inspired by the adventures of past explorers such as Ernest Shackleton and Lewis and Clark. She said in her NASA pre-flight interview: “When I read about these people, I think the one thing that just stands out is their perseverance in how they carried out what they wished to carry out.” Her fellow astronaut Lt. Colonel Michael Anderson was inspired by the flights to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was excited that he could combine his love of physics with his passion for flying. Lt. Colonel Anderson said: “Here you have these men that are scientists [and] engineers, and they’re also flying these wonderful airplanes and these great spaceships, and they’re going places. And to me, that just seemed like the perfect mix and the perfect job.”

Although space travel may not be in your futures, as students at a highly regarded scientific and technological university, you have many enviable career opportunities. As you weigh your options, I hope you keep in mind that your talents and skills are in demand—and much needed—at national agencies such as NASA. What is more, a critical need exists in both the public and private sector for people with advanced degrees in science and engineering. Regardless of your career choices, there is important work for you to do.