Do you think we would have gone to moon, had Shuttle, have HST with JUST Private Corporations involved? Don't think so.

really NASA's purpose to send people into space?
 
John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)
 
Stephen C. Smith, a local resident with expertise in government administration and the space program who writes a blog about Kennedy Space Center, hit the topic of NASA leadership from the point of the agency’s purpose. Or, as he framed it, apparent lack of purpose.
 
As we continue to discuss here the key steps necessary to save the space program, I wanted to deliver on last week’s commitment to share some other voices on the topic. This is Smith’s assessment:
 
“I think we need to start with the basics. What is ‘the space program’? I would say it’s as defined in the National Aeronautics and Space Act. ... Nothing in the Act requires NASA to fly people in space, to explore other worlds or even to own its rockets.”
 
The law, he goes on, “lists a number of objectives to which NASA is permitted to ‘contribute materially.’ They are not requirements, and the language only requires NASA to ‘contribute materially’ to ‘one or more.’
 
“Somewhere along the line, we lost track of NASA’s intended purpose as defined in the law. In my opinion, it was in 1961 when JFK challenged us to go to the moon by the end of the 1960s. It was inspirational, but it also morphed NASA into an agency it wasn’t intended to be.
 
“NASA was created in 1958 to separate civilian space research from military activities. That’s why Section 102(b) spells out what is in NASA’s purview, and what remains with the Defense Department. The concern at the time was that our activities might give the Soviet Union an excuse to militarize space.
 
“But it was never intended to be Starfleet. As you described in the article, NASA has become another typical pork-laden agency serving the whims of those in Congress who sit on the space subcommittees.
 
“How to solve it? The only way is to take routine space access out of the hands of politicians, which is what the Obama administration is doing. Commercial cargo (begun in 2005 during the Bush administration) and commercial crew are giving us next-generation spacecraft at a much lower cost than if developed by NASA.
 
“More importantly, it takes space access out of the hands of the government. If you want to go to space today in the U.S., you have to be a government employee. Commercial space, commonly called “NewSpace,” ends that government monopoly. That’s why some members of Congress are doing everything they can to fight NewSpace.
 
“Once the government monopoly ends, so does their control over space pork. A few members have started to figure this out, so they’re trying to find ways to control NewSpace to their benefit, e.g., enacting laws that restrict NewSpace until they receive enough campaign contributions to relax those restrictions.
 
“But in the long run, NewSpace is the only way out. Ironically, in 1985 the Reagan administration added to the National Aeronautics and Space Act Section 102(c), which requires NASA to ‘seek and encourage, to the maximum extent possible, the fullest commercial use of space.’ That’s exactly what the Obama administration is doing. Section 102(c) has been ignored until now.
 
“Funny how we see a lot of Republicans ridicule Obama for enforcing a law Reagan enacted 26 years ago.
 
“These companies and others are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in commercial crew vehicles, not because of tourism, but because they see all the research and manufacturing potential in microgravity. In the 19th century, the Gold Rush drove the westward expansion of the U.S. In the 21st century, the “gold” will be microgravity.
 
“Maybe it shouldn’t be saved,” if your definition of “space program” is a government monopoly.
 
“NASA needs to go back to its roots, as defined in the law. It’s supposed to be an aerospace research agency. It’s not supposed to be a space taxi, and it’s not supposed to be Starfleet. I would love to see Starfleet and boldly go, but as we’ve seen over the last 50 years, that only leads to a lot of government pork by self-serving politicians. If we’re to go beyond Earth orbit into the solar system, either we and other nations will have to collaborate to do so as a species, or we have to wait until economic incentive drives the private sector out into deep space. We sure won’t get there so long as access to space remains a government monopoly.”
 
END