Guest Column: Paying our own way into space

Guest Column: Paying our own way into space

And, with entrepreneurs emerging, NOW's a good time to jettison NASA

by J.H. HUEBERT
Attorney, adjunct faculty member with the Ludwig von Mises Institute

Another billionaire made news this month for paying Russia millions to take
him into space. Specifically, American Charles Simonyi who helped develop
Microsoft Word paid $25 million for a 13-day ride in a Soyuz capsule with two
cosmonauts, making him the fifth such space tourist.

Space tourism is rare enough that each flight still makes headlines, but that
may soon change. Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic plans the inaugural flight
of its VSS Enterprise in about a year and plans to begin regular space
flights, each with six passengers, in 2009.
Another company, Constellation Services International, is preparing to take
passengers on trips around the moon. Still others are planning a space hotel.

To many people, stories about space tourism may look like little more than
frivolous fun for the superrich not much different than a recent news item
about a New York City restaurant that offers a $1,000 pizza to people with money
to burn.

But space tourism stands to benefit more people than a few billionaires and
private space travel in general offers an opportunity to scrap our wasteful,
obsolete government space program.

More at:

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/homepage/article_1673177.php