"We've grown used to wonders in this century. It's hard to dazzle us. But for 25 years the United States space program has been doing just that. We've grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we've only just begun. We're still pioneers."

- President Ronald Reagan speaking to the nation after the loss of Challenger and its crew on Jan. 28, 1986

This generation of Americans has never known a time we did not lead the world in space. But it has not always been this way. President Kennedy's announcement of the Apollo program is famous for its bold call to "take longer strides," but it also included a blunt warning to America that failure was possible because the Soviets were so far ahead.

America learned the lessons of that era well. Once we took the lead in space, we never gave it back. But that could be changing — and changing fast.

When the shuttle program ends with Atlantis' landing, the United States - for the first time in years - will have no capability to launch astronauts into space. To get our people to and from the orbiting space station, we will have to rely on Russian launches - at more than $60 million a seat.

And it's not just a question of the shuttle. Earlier this year, America delayed a critical weather satellite launch until 2016, potentially reducing forecast accuracy by 50 percent and creating the first such coverage gap since the 1960s. While budgets are tight in an era of deadly tsunamis, tornados and extreme weather, the word "myopic" - literally and figuratively - comes to mind.

Space exploration has never been easy. But for the last 50 years the United States has refused to accept second place because the stakes have been too high for anything less. Partly this has been a function of our history - the nation of the Wright brothers and the Manhattan Project cannot sit by and leave the next round of great discoveries to others. Partly this has been necessary to preserve our national security - the high ground must always be defended; and space is the new high ground on which battlefield communications, precision targeting and lifesaving missile defense all depend.

And partly, it is fiscal common sense. History shows that the country that leads in space is the country that generates economy-changing innovations like computer microchips and satellite communications, as well as lifesaving medical advances like CAT scans and kidney dialysis - more than 1,650 NASA spinoffs since 1976 alone.

From satellite forecasting that can increase crop yields by 10 percent to the artificial intelligence that drives some online dating, to the "jaws of life" that save thousands of accident victims each year, virtually every sector of American life has been touched by space-program technologies. Indeed, because of all this follow-on activity, for every $1 spent on the space program, the American economy receives roughly $8 in total benefit, according to noted Stanford professor Scott Hubbard. And all royalties and license payments from NASA patents go directly into the U.S. treasury to pay down our national debt.

Despite the national, military and economic benefits of our efforts in space, these programs invariably end up in the crosshairs when budgets get tight - not because of economics but because of politics. In short, because NASA has been responsible and hasn't sprinkled its projects and facilities across a sufficient number of congressional districts, it often pays the political price on the budget guillotine.

But our competitors don't sleep in the meantime. China seeks the global prestige and technological edge that comes from space success, and already has dozens of space launches under its belt, including a lunar probe. Next up, it plans to orbit a permanent space station and send Chinese astronauts to the moon. India plans to send astronauts to both the moon and Mars. Brazil, Russia, Japan - even our deadly adversary Iran - are challenging us for the jobs, innovation and military advantages of the high ground of space.

Fifty years ago, in spring of 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, blasting off from Cape Canaveral on a 15-minute suborbital flight. While America rightly celebrated that historic achievement, our joy was bittersweet as weeks earlier Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had orbited the entire planet on a flight that lasted nearly seven times as long.

Fifty years from now, a new generation of explorers will be pushing the frontiers outward, and reaping the benefits of their effort. They may be Americans; they may not. In Reagan's time, there was no doubt we were "still pioneers." Whether that will be still be true in our grandchildren's time is for us to decide.

Gregory piloted the space shuttle for a record 16 days on mission STS-67 and is currently a vice president at Qwaltec Inc. in Tempe, Ariz.