Back in the old days, when space travel was for cowboys and rocket fuel was a buck a metric ton, we didn't worry much about the environment. We blasted huge holes in the ozone, filled earth orbit with our junk, and trashed the moon like a punk band at the Holiday Inn, leaving it littered with golf balls, flags and discarded lunar rovers.

Happily, times have changed, and as NASA prepares to "extend the human presence throughout the Solar System" one of the first things they're doing is putting together an Environmental Impact Statement.

The Constellation program is designed to take humans back into space on a more permanent basis, first on the International Space Station, then in bases on the moon, and ultimately to Mars and beyond. The EIS essentially looks at the potential environmental impacts of the early stages of the program, principally the building, testing and launch of a new spacecraft called the Orion. The document covers everything from the effects of solid rocket fuel on the ozone layer to the mpact on wildlife near the Kennedy Space Center, to the project's possible contribution to global warming. It also explores ways to mitigate any potentially harmful environmental effects.

Getting people back into space should be one of the key activities of this century, openng up as it will virtually limitless possibilities of discovery in all areas of science. It's nice to see NASA back in the saddle, and nicer still to see them recognizing the need to balance scientific imperatives with environmental protection.