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Will NASA's Loss Be Space Tourism's Gain?

February 4, 2010 at 12:43 PM | by | Comment (1)

As part of the President's pivot to fiscal responsibility, the White House unveiled a new budget last week that scraps NASA's moon program and shifts $6 billion into promoting private space flight. Instead of using NASA's space shuttles to move our astronauts back and forth, the government would contract private firms to do the flying. The goal is to kill two birds with one budgetary allocation: the US would get to maintain its presence in space even while it injected badly-needed funds into the country's growing space tourism industry.

If the plan works out, the space industry in 2020 will look a lot like the airline industry a hundred years earlier. Until the 1920's, American planes were operated by the newly minted US Air Force. Then a bunch of small regional airlines began to develop, relying in no small part on guaranteed government air mail funding. In 1930 they merged into the corporation that became American Airlines, and the basis for modern civilian aviation was born.

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 of—I 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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NASA and space tourism

From my perspective space tourism will help to give the everyday people something that NASA failed to do. This does not mean NASA did wrong but now both industries can help each other. I am certain the people will appreciate this very much. FMI visit http://www.ThePeoplesSpaceport.com
Tony Webb on February 5, 2010 at 2:22 PM #Permalink

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