Call to Privatize Low Earth Orbit

"President George W. Bush will outline a new US space initiative aiming to send manned missions to the moon -- and eventually beyond," Agence France-Presse reports. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... 0114164304

"The spirit is going to be one of continued exploration and seeking new horizons and investing in a program that meets that objective," Bush said in a preview to his much-awaited speech at NASA's Washington headquarters.

In a statement, Cato Adjunct Scholar Ed Hudgins writes that while the president's idea might steer NASA in the right direction, the agency must make some major changes to avoid more failures:

"If Bush's plan is not to result in yet another costly bureaucratic failure, it must cut NASA's mission back, limiting it to exploring the moon and planets," writes Hudgins, editor of Space: The Free-Market Frontier. "This will mean scrapping the shuttle or turning it over to a private company, pulling out of and possibly privatizing the space station, and allowing the private sector to take over space transportation in low-Earth orbit."
http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=P ... =&adv=&pg=

If NASA is to regain its purpose, it must focus on exploration, but leave LEO to private companies whose primary goal will be to reduce both cost and risk.