Sounds like a win-win, which of course means there's no way it goes smoothly. In the first place, no one's exactly sure what it means to promote private space flight. The most specific NASA administrator Bolden could get was "what NASA will focus on is facilitating the success ofI like to use the term 'entrepreneurial interests.'" That explanation was less than satisfying for many reasons, among them the part where he seemed to be spontaneously inventing his own new phrases.
More troublingly, it's not at all clear that today's private space corporations resemble the airlines of last century. Commercial airlines could rely on already existing airports. Today's spaceports aren't yet ready. Commercial airplanes could fly in exactly the same way Air Force planes could. Today's cutting-edge space planes can't go where space shuttles go. And then there are the political issues. Suffice it to say that cutting jobs in the short-term is not universally popular.
All that said, we have to side with the President on this one. Jaunted's official policy is to support whatever is likely to bring us more Richard Branson content (kidding). That guy is magic.
[Photo: tofer618 / Wiki Commons]
Related Stories:
· NASA to explore private space flight [CBC News]
· Science Travel [Jaunted]
· Politics [Jaunted]


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