Re: CONGRATULATIONS BIGELOW AEROSPACE!


"Jim Kingdon" <kingdon@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:p4w1wsoup0v.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The Bigelow effort is part of what the Foundation calls the NewSpace
industry, encompassing a wide range of entrepreneurially driven efforts
built on the legacy of the U.S. space program, creating an economically
profitable human presence in space. It believes the U.S. should do all
it can to encourage this trend by, for example, supporting the growth
of commercial space transportation firms. Unfortunately, the U.S. has
offered little support for them, favoring instead giant government led
projects like the current NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle, which keep
costs high and limit access to space.

This paragraph bear re-reading. In particular, the Foundation:

(a) Is presenting Bigelow as a successful transfer of technology from
NASA to the private sector, and

(b) complaining that NASA should have a more commercial approach to
space transportation.

In particular, when they complain "the U.S. has offered little support
for them", they're talking about transportation, not about Bigelow or
Transhab.

Exactly.

The point I take away from this is that NASA should stick to what it does
best, research and technology transfer. In the future, NASA should only buy
launches from private industry. This means that after the shuttle program
ends, there should be no NASA developed shuttle derived launch vehicles. If
there truly is merit in developing these vehicles, then let NASA transfer
the technology, and much of the hardware, to private industry and let them
develop the shuttle derived vehicles themselves.

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)


.

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