Other People's Money

Tecumsehsbones

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Mar 18, 2013
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In the news:

But in the coming weeks, NASA is expected to announce its long-awaited solution: a multibillion-dollar contract to build a U.S. spacecraft, which could help reignite a struggling American space program.

Instead of paying the Russians more than $70 million a seat to ride their Soyuz spacecraft to the space station, the contract would give the United States the ability, for the first time in years, to launch American astronauts into space from U.S. soil.

In a significant shift for an agency that long owned and operated its own rockets, NASA is looking to the private sector to build what would be the equivalent of a rental car for space: a privately owned vehicle that the agency would hire to give its astronauts a ride before returning it – atmospheric-reentry burn marks and all.

So, the government is going to pay billions of dollars to a company to build a space shuttle, and then the company, not the government, will own the space shuttle.

They call it a "rental car for space." But it ain't quite like Avis. If it was, it'd be you buying the car, giving it to Avis, then paying Avis to rent it.

I'm pretty sure if it crashes, the government will pay the contractor for its loss.

It would inject a large amount of government money into the private space industry and continue NASA’s increasing reliance on contractors, which have been flying cargo resupply missions to the space station in recent years. The latest contract could also help expand future competition by elevating smaller, start-up space companies into a realm long dominated by huge, established firms.

This is what the right calls "private enterprise": the government pays for it all, then pays you to use it, and then makes sure you pay no taxes.

You can just smell the freedom.

Using a private-sector rocket to transport astronauts marks an evolution for NASA. While the George W. Bush administration started a commercial program, it also invested heavily in what was known as Constellation, which would have replaced the shuttle and funded new missions to the moon.

But the Obama administration killed Constellation, which was over budget and behind schedule, then doubled down on commercial options. Having the private sector design, build and own the space vehicles, under the auspices of NASA, was seen as a way to save time and money and allow NASA to focus on long-term goals, such as sending astronauts to Mars.

Damn that Obama! How dare he shut down a program that was behind schedule and over budget!

Well, at least he replaced it with a program to triple-pay so-called private enterprise for the new Space Pickup.

Why don't they just let the aerospace and defence industries tax us directly? Cut out the middleman.

Oops, shouldn'ta said that. Now it'll be in Paul Ryan's budget plan.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-race-is-for-a-rental-car-into-orbit/?hpid=z4