Way to Go, NASA. They did it, and it was spectacular.  Last evening NASA scientists flew our Deep Impact space probe into the Tempel 1 comet 83 million miles from Earth.  Whatever the scientists may learn from the debris of this collision, we ought to think for a moment about the political implications.

If we can hit a comet traveling at supersonic speed 83 million miles away, surely we can figure out how to hit an incoming missile launched at the US by, say, North Korea or Iran.  In other words, missile defense looks a lot more workable today than it did yesterday.

Maybe we ought to fire the current bunch of missile—defense contractors and put the NASA team to work.

Herb Meyer   7 04 05