The Failuof NASA: And A Way Out

Al Globus wrote:

>One important difference is that the FAA and FCC don't do much R&D or
>provide test facilities to any great degree (I think - correct me if
>I'm wrong). I think that, to solve the transportation problem, the
>government will have to be deeply involved in these things.
>
Actually the FAA seems to be the right government organisation to 'solve
the transportation problem'. They've got a long history of encouraging
and regulating the air industry, and the first 100km of a launch vehicle
/is/ an air vehicle. They've actually got jurisdiction, and are ramping
up to regulate the embryonic private space industry as we speak.

> NASA could
>probably do it with proper leadership, but the current administrator
>does not seem to think developing better Earth - orbit transportation
>is particularly important (he actually said that in a Space News
>interview -- although that was pre-Challenger).
>
They might be able to do it; but it would be unwise for NASA to try
because NASA currently has a USA monopoly on manned space flight. That
can be nothing but harmful- no companies would ever go up against a
state sponsored monopoly. And state monopolies are usually inefficient;
and space is the ideal place to hide inefficiency right now, everything
is so expensive that nobody notices.

> I know from personal
>experience that a lot of NASA folks would love to do the right thing.
>
I'm very sure you're right. Still, as someone pointed out, it is
possible for a bank to do entirely the wrong thing, when every single
person in the bank wants to do the right thing.

>Al Globus
>CSC at NASA Ames Research Center
>http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html
>
--

-Ian "Everything I say is a lie"
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