NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory just showed us that America's can-do spirit is still alive, even in a can't-do age.

Thirty-five years ago today, America lost astronauts for the first time during a mission. As America rebuilds its human spaceflight program, we need to re-learn the lessons from Challenger and her sister ship, Columbia.

Decades of close coordination and collaboration among the member space agencies has enabled humans to live continuously off of this Earth for the last 20 years but many milestones still lay ahead.

Space systems are part of the critical national infrastructure for many countries including satellites, public and commercial services, disaster prediction and response, rescue operations, management of agriculture and other natural resources, global finance, communications, transportation, navigation and all manner of military operations.

If the spacefaring world can work together, we will make NASA’s triumph in December 2014 a meaningful one for humanity.