Two stories last week suggest that the NASA of tomorrow will be substantially different from the NASA of today.
The New York Times had a story August 24 questioning whether NASA could possibly reach its stated goals of another Moon landing by 2020 given the poor funding it receives. Apparently, a blue-ribbon panel commissioned by the Obama administration considered the current manned-flight plans “not executable” without serious increases to the organization’s budget. (The panel also thought it was dumb to throw away the International Space Station [ISS] in 2016 after only 5 years of full operation.) “In fact,” Kenneth Change wrote, the panel concluded “NASA might not reach the Moon’s surface even by 2030.”
The same day, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration was “leaning toward” shifting major space programs from the government agency to the private sector. Not all space programs would change hands — NASA would still exist, after all — just most of the ones involving actually transporting things and people into space. “Essentially,” Andy Pasztor wrote, “NASA would be paying a set fee for every pound or person transported to orbit.”
So, things are looking bad for NASA. Not only do its goals seem unreachable at the current pace, it might not even get to keep those goals. But is this a bad thing? I’ve heard for years that the best way to improve our space exploration system was to privatize it, and companies like Virgin Galactic and Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (aka SpaceX) seem capable enough — and more than willing.
If this is the best way to get humans out into space, establishing settlements and colonies and other sci-fi tropes, I’m all for it. But, I just can’t help feel a little sad that NASA, once the symbol of American triumph and can-do achievement, can sputter and disappoint just like any other organization.
At the risk of starting another commenting cascade of Plutonian or ISS-ian proportions, I do wonder what you think. Is this the beginning of the end for ol’ NASA? Would that be good riddance, then, or good-bye?
Photo credit: NASA