For those worried that America’s leadership in spaceflight died with NASA’s downsizing, meet SpaceX, a private company that showed Tuesday how capitalism will do what government does and better.
NASA was once the pride of a country fighting a tense Cold War. It planned and executed what is arguably man’s greatest achievement. It indeed engineered a giant leap for mankind.
Yet since those lunar landings, the agency has gotten bogged down in politics and bureaucracy, plagued by waste and ambitions that were never reached. Some believe President Obama’s decision to cut NASA’s budget and the closure of the shuttle program signal the end of manned spaceflight for the U.S. But it doesn’t.
In the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket that was topped with the company’s Dragon capsule. The unmanned Dragon is on course to dock with the International Space Station, where its 674 pounds of food and supplies will be welcomed by the crew on Friday.
On May 31, Dragon will return to Earth loaded with completed science experiments and other gear it will bring back from the space station.
Eventually, SpaceX will put more than hardware and supplies into orbit. It will put men into space.
If there is a demand for any good or service that isn’t being met, the free market will fill the void as long as there is a profit to be earned. Entrepreneurs, such as SpaceX co-founder Elon Musk, won’t let a business opportunity slip away. If there is money to be made, space will be commercialized.
A few years ago, Cato Institute Executive Vice President David Boaz blogged that “there is no shortage of interest in space entrepreneurship: wealthy people with a track record of commercial achievement are yearning to get involved.”
To be fair, there is some NASA funding for this effort. Although I think that only sped things up; SpaceX would have gotten there on it’s own without the NASA help.
As a child of the Cold War and Sputnik, I recall the emptyness I felt the day the Russians ate our lunch. I watched in between work, Night School and raising a family, the development of our Space Program with its accomplishments and tragedies. The crowning jewel putting men on the moon despite what the conspiracy wack-jobs believe ( how did that laser reflector get staked in the lunar surface )?
When the Kennedy Vision died and Congress couldn’t justify the remaining Apollo Missions, NASA lost its inspiration (and funding) despite successful Mars and Voyager missions.
I believe the International Space Station was a contrivance for political and economic reasons and really had no opcost advandage or long range goal.
Had we established a moon base as a realistic oportunity we would not be behind the eight ball as we are today.
Amen, John. Voyager pictures changed my soul.
I do not understand what all the fuss is about. I’m pretty sure there some government funding and NASA oversight in there someplace. It was launched from a government facility. There have been other commercially motivated space efforts. Some were failures (Kistler) and some successful (Orbital Sciences). I fail to see the historical aspect. Space-X has solid connections to the Obama administration. Elon Musk is an electric car darling as well as a space enthusiast. He must get invited to all the Washington cocktail parties. The government is not buying commodity commercial launches off the shelf. The achievement is no more impressive than the Geminni project of the 60s, even if the technology to do it is modernized. It is still not easy, but what’s the big deal? Is it that progress is being made to squeeze out the NASA? I am optimistic that the NASA can get the essential combination of the right project and the right people together again, but it doesn’t look likely in this environment. Somebody wants them out.
Now NASA can get on with its real job. Climate hysteria with James Hansen at the taxpayes expense. Sad to see some of the greatest accomplishments of this nation lost to politics and fools.
Privatize NASA. Privatize jails. Privatize the military. Sell your genitals. Ben Franklin gave us a republic. Are we telling him that we’d prefer a privately-owned and operated government?
To lead and direct a mission for all humanity, to expand the range of human habitation beyond earth, and secure the future for humanity — make that dependent on private financial advantage?
Of course, with Obama leading and directing, we no longer have a republic, but that’s no reason to prefer a corporatist dictatorship to a republic. Oust Obama NOW! Visit larouchepac.com
I am pleased to welcome our new capitalist overlords.
Seriously, the Lunar Project was a Cold War thing, and America won. Since then, the political drive has gone, therefore the decline of NASA. The US government still paid for the launch, as part of its obligation to the ISS. But the hardware was developed by a corporation; just like the USA’a nuclear aircraft carriers, submarines and admiral’s yachts are, not to mention Obamas “private” jets.
So, I see this as a normalization, not a retreat. NASA had become just another osified government bureaucracy; a vile environment in which Lysenkoists like Hansen can thrive.