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Space Commission Expected to Recommend Privatization of Many NASA Projects

Posted on: Tuesday, 15 June 2004, 06:00 CDT

Jun. 15--A commission developing a blueprint for the future of the American space program is expected tomorrow to recommend privatizing much of NASA's unmanned space exploration as the first step toward President Bush's vision of returning a man to the moon and eventually sending one to Mars.

The nine-member President's Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond, appointed by Bush, has been working since February on a report that recommends future directions for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

According to the website Space.com, which obtained a leaked copy of the report, the commission will recommend the creation of incentives such as tax breaks for companies that develop innovative technology or complete successful space missions. It also endorses a NASA plan for monetary prizes for those companies to quickly achieve those goals. Manned space travel, however, would remain under NASA's direct management.

"It's a fabulous idea, said George Whitesides of the National Space Society, a nonprofit group that supports human space exploration. "The promise that this offers is an entirely new strategy in space. Every time we have opened up a particular sector [of government] to private development, we have gotten faster technology."

According to a separate summary of the report obtained by the Associated Press, the commission says private companies should take the lead in space exploration except in "areas where there is irrefutable demonstration that only government can perform the proposed activity."

The commission, headed by former Air Force secretary Edward C. Aldridge Jr., was formed soon after Bush's January call to send astronauts back to the moon as early as 2015, and then to Mars sometime after 2030. Bush said about $13 billion would be needed to get the plan underway for its first five years, most of it from relocation of other NASA funds.

The 60-page report may go over well with members of Congress, some of whom have already balked at NASA's budget increase request for 2005. Bush has proposed adding $1 billion to NASA's $15.4 billion budget over the next five years. Members of Congress have expressed concern over the lack of detail about the entire plan, and some publicized estimates for it have run as high as hundreds of billions of dollars.

Once the recommendations are made public, NASA officials will likely decide whether to adopt them in the next few weeks.

Commission members declined to comment on the report yesterday or did not return phone calls. A commission spokeswoman said a press conference about the report would be held tomorrow. NASA officials also declined to comment on the report. However, the agency has already created an Office of Space Exploration Systems, a sign some experts say that shows their willingness to abide by the report's expected recommendations to overhaul parts of the agency.

The commission's recommendations are also expected to focus on streamlining NASA, allowing for more international partnerships, and funding a large educational effort to get young people interested in the sciences, according to hearings the panel held and those familiar with the hearings. According to Space.com, the report also calls for the creation of new organizations to better oversee budgets and management as well as an overhaul of NASA's 10 field centers, where critics say duplication and turf battles often get in the way of NASA's mission.

Bush's plan, announced a year after the Columbia shuttle disaster that killed seven astronauts in 2003, calls for the retirement of the space shuttle by 2010, after the International Space Station is completed. A new spaceship, called a crew exploration vehicle, is set to launch by 2014 to replace the shuttle.

According to the AP report, the White House commission wants private companies "to assume the primary role of providing services to NASA and most immediately in accessing low-Earth orbit."

So far, one major prize exists for private spaceflight: the X Prize, a $10 million award offered by an independent foundation for the first, manned, privately built spacecraft that can carry 3 people more than 62 miles from Earth and repeat the feat within two weeks. Several companies are racing to build such a machine.

Today, NASA will hold a workshop on its own version of that award, a concept called the Centennial Challenges, which will award prize money for technological advances in several different areas, including robotic capabilities and very low-cost space exploration.

As news of the commission report leaked out yesterday, some worried that the government could not provide enough money or incentive to support a commericial space industry.

"The other side -- that there would be so much commercial business and [businesses] could expand independently -- that is a ways down the road," said Bruce Mahone of the Aerospace Industries Association, which represents the nation's major manufacturers of spacecraft equipment and materials.

While the association is in favor of the the proposed changes, Mahone says he wants to ensure there are enough long-term contracts and incentives for private businesses to flourish in the field. For example, he said, if a private company comes up with a new space station or launch vehicle, the company would need a clear contract with NASA to attract investors.

"If the company comes through and develops technology, great," he said. "If they don't come through, NASA doesn't lose anything."

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