Obama endorses Milholland/Wells Space Privatization Strategy

Had no idea this was in the works:

President Obama will end NASA’s return mission to the moon and turn to private companies to launch astronauts into space when he unveils his budget request to Congress next week, an administration official said Thursday.
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Mr. Obama’s request, which will be announced on Monday, would add $6 billion over five years to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s budget compared with projections last year. With the increase, NASA would receive $100 billion over the 2011 through 2015 fiscal years.

The new money would largely go to commercial companies that would provide transportation to and from the International Space Station. Until now, NASA has designed and operated its own spacecraft, like the space shuttles.

The commercial rockets would displace the Ares I, the rocket that NASA has been developing for the past four years to replace the shuttles, which are scheduled to be retired this year. Companies expected to seek the new space taxi business include United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin that launches rockets for the United States Air Force, and Space Exploration Technologies, a start-up company led by Elon Musk, who founded PayPal.

Couple of thoughts on this. One, I think that the history of government privatization schemes has shown that it usually doesn't accrue to the public interest. To get the private sector to do something it isn't already doing or wants to do, the government usually has to sweeten the pot a whole lot to get them on board. Well see how this shakes out.

Two: The stubborn insistence on maintaining human space exploration seems like bad policy to me. For one thing it is much more expensive to send humans into space than robots. Robots don't have to breathe after all. And if the Terminator franchise has taught us anything, its that robots can do all kinds of cool things humans can't. They could have eyes that take in the full-spectrum of light for instance. So not only are robots cheaper, they are better for science too. And despite what this XKCD strip would have you believe, they don't have feelings.