If this goddamned story doesn't make you want to stand up and salute the stars and stripes, I don't know what will:

NASA is planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore, a top senator revealed Friday.

The robotic ship would capture the 500-ton 25-foot asteroid in 2019. Then using an Orion space capsule, now being developed, a crew of about four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock in 2021 for spacewalking exploration, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.

Repeat: The United States of America is going to go fucking lasso a fucking asteroid with our fucking space robot, motherfuckers!