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NASA Archive

Tuesday

1

March 2011

0

COMMENTS

Markets Do It Better: Space Edition

Written by , Posted in Big Government, Free Markets

I’ve written in the past on why we should not fret over the decline of NASA (which I’ve also argued is inevitable), and instead embrace the power of the market when it comes to space flight, as explained in this New York Times piece:

If all goes as planned, within a couple of years, tourists will be rocketing into space aboard a Virgin Galactic space plane — paying $200,000 for about four minutes of weightlessness — before coming back down for a landing on a New Mexico runway.

Sitting in the next seat could be a scientist working on a research experiment.

Science, perhaps even more than tourism, could turn out to be big business for Virgin and other companies that are aiming to provide short rides above the 62-mile altitude that marks the official entry into outer space, eventually on a daily basis.

A $200,000 ticket is prohibitively expensive except for a small slice of the wealthy, but compared with the millions of dollars that government agencies like NASA typically spend to get experiments into space, “it’s revolutionary,” said S. Alan Stern, an associate vice president of the Southwest Research Institute’s space sciences and engineering division in Boulder, Colo.

Now these won’t actually achieve orbit and offer only a few minutes of weightlessness. But that’s the power of markets. If it’s possible, they offer the service that is actually needed for an affordable price, rather than only what centralized bureaucrats decide should be done. There is apparently solid demand here, and it’s markets that have to get it done for a reasonable price.

So for many experiments, what takes government millions, markets can do for $200,000. Now imagine what markets could do with the really big government budget items.

Friday

9

July 2010

0

COMMENTS

NASA's Inevitable Bureaucratic Decline

Written by , Posted in Waste & Government Reform

I address this in a post at Big Government, entitled “NASA and the Last Fig Leaf of Big Government:”

…Now, with the ridiculous admission of NASA Administrator Charles Bolden that the so-called space agency’s priority is to boost Muslim self-esteem, this last fig leaf of big government has finally been removed.  Believers in grand government solutions to all social problems are left naked for all to see.

The comment itself isn’t really the big story.  Yes, it’s outrageous.  It represents everything that is wrong with the PC-obsessed, America-bashing, leftist administration currently occupying the White House.  But it’s merely the latest  in a lengthy list of NASA disappointments.  The real story is the slow, drawn-out transformation of NASA from a symbol of American exceptionalism into a national embarrassment.

Friday

28

November 2008

0

COMMENTS

Treat The Illness

Written by , Posted in Free Markets, Liberty & Limited Government, Waste & Government Reform

I recently sent the following letter to the New York Times:

To the Editor:

As “NASA’s Black Hole Budgets” (editorial, Nov. 24) noted, NASA has a “culture that has lost control of spending.” As a former employee, Alan Stern has seen this problem first hand. Unfortunately, the solution he offers is little more than a call to just try harder. Politicians can’t be counted on to “turn from the self-serving protection of local NASA jobs.” Moreover, the problems he describes in NASA are not unique to the space agency; they are the results of systemic flaws in the bureaucratic system.

We should be treating the illness rather than the symptoms. This requires a fundamental rethinking of how we approach space exploration. A good start would be to rely less on government bureaucracies and more on private endeavors, which can be promoted through tax breaks and prize offerings. But so long as bureaucrats are encouraged to feed on the public trough, we shouldn’t be surprised when they pig out.

Sincerely,

Brian Garst