Forty years ago humanity prepared to take its first small steps where no life had gone before. As such, Apollo remains the ultimate technical accomplishment of our kind (sorry Pyramids, and nice try ISS too bad no points for politics). Any other answer frankly deserves a fist in the face. Even the mighty regime-changing internet dwindles in comparison, since even insects have a hierarchical communications network that is largely uninteresting, just like the human equivalent. So there's not much new to say about Apollo except thanks to every single person that made it possible and gee I'm glad to be alive when it happened.

What's considerably more important is what the children of Apollo do with their unsurpassed legacy. I don't know what to expect from the next forty years. Maybe Apollo will remain the highest our collective grasp ever goes, for the rest of our time on Earth. Can subsequent generations increasingly deficit in attention span, goal setting, and most importantly finances, summon the drive to accomplish great things? Where there's a will there's a dollar, so cost won't prove to be the limiting factor. Rather, the real risk is under-educated children, under-inspired imaginations, and under-utilized resources including the most significant: ourselves. The only limiting factor to humanity is always itself.

After a month-long shaky ride of leaky valves and even more leaky thunderclouds, STS-127 is at last in orbit approaching the International Space Station. A few bits of debris may have nicked her upon ascent but the problem is in good hands. Endeavour's seven-member crew (including many rookies also scheduled to perform their first spacewalk) will deliver the final experimental "porch" to the Kibo module, the pride of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Five spacewalks are planned over a sixteen-day mission to bring Kibo up to speed and install replacement parts for future station use.

Signs are looking up elsewhere also. Commercial space flight got a big boost with this week's stealthy launch of SpaceX's Falcon 1 and successful deployment of its satellite payload. After fumbling a few steps (who doesn't?) it's good to see them chalk up another win. They may not yet have the respect of their larger government-suckled relatives but at least eyes are glancing that way. Finally, late this afternoon thankfully the Senate unanimously confirmed the administration's new nominees for NASA Administrator and Deputy Administrator, Charles Bolden and Lori Garver. At one of the most important moments in NASA's history arrive challenges and opportunities together. Let's see what new leadership can do with them.