Re: [ERPS] Washington Monthly reposts April 1980 critique of theshuttle

[Adrian Tymes]

Henry Spencer wrote:
> As Randall noted, supporting and encouraging industry is not really NASA's
> job, except insofar as NASA is supposed to be developing technology for
> all to use. Nor is NASA erecting many hurdles these days, aside from
> issues of public mindset (which were established long ago and would not go
> away if NASA were abolished).

Consider, though, that NASA gives a lot of funding to contractors who
would like to establish all kinds of hurdles to the kind of private
space we envision, mainly to protect their funding. If cheap space
comes about, whether or not they're playing in it, fat fees from NASA
will soon dry up. They know this.

> NASA *cannot* compete with cheap private spaceflight. They don't know how.
> They don't know who the customers are, they don't take the crucial markets
> seriously, and above all, they cannot do anything cheap.

But they can try to put all kinds of regulatory/legislative barriers in
place. Granted, they don't have a legal foot to stand on, but that
doesn't stop them from trying, mainly as a harassment campaign.
("You're under arrest because you didn't have a launch license from
NASA." "NASA doesn't issue launch licenses! That's the FAA!" "We'll
let the courts decide that. In the mean time, we're impounding your
vehicle. You're liable if we mishandle it and the explosion injures
anyone.")

"Competition" is a polite, if slightly inaccurate, term for this.

> The single most effective way to put the shuttle out of business is to
> demonstrate the ability to offer cargo and passenger shipments to ISS at
> $100/kg, at which point Congress will start asking pointedly why NASA is
> still spending a hundred times that.

To the ISS's orbit, anyway, whether or not NASA lets us actually dock
with the ISS. ("Someone paid us to put a tracking satellite within easy
EVA distance of the ISS. Why? Dunno, but we could as easily have put
supplies there for the ISS crew to grab. So long as we're not actually
touching the ISS, it ain't NASA's property.")

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