2008-05-12

As startups vow to beat the once stubborn agency back to the moon, officials and analysts say NASA has begun to shift its priorities—and cash—toward a dependence on the growing independent market for spacecraft.


In space, no one can hear you change your mind.


For decades, NASA kept a tight fist around the construction and operation of the spacecraft that ferried its astronauts and hardware into orbit. Sure, an army of private contractors actually built the vehicles, but NASA oversaw the designs—and always kept the pink slips. Now, however, the agency seems to be shifting course, as NASA officials insist that the budding commercial spacecraft fleet represents the only way the United States can realize its dreams of solar-system conquest on schedule and at an affordable cost.

Because of a new focus for NASA’s strategic investments—not to mention incentives like the Ansari X Prize, which spurred the space-tourism business, and the Google Lunar X Prize, which could do the same for payloads—private-sector spaceships could be ready for government service soon, says Sam Scimemi, who heads NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. “The industry has grown up,” he tells PM. “It used to be that only NASA or the Air Force could do such things.”

NASA got its start in aeronautics research, kick-starting a U.S. aviation industry that came to dominate the world. NASA administrator Michael Griffin said in an interview last year with PM that he wants the agency to do the same for commercial space transportation.

“I’d like for us to get to the point where we have the kind of private-public synergy in space flight that we have had for a hundred years in aviation,” Griffin said. The spirit of private enterprise is crucial to the future of space exploration, he acknowledged. “I see a day in the not very distant future where instead of NASA buying a vehicle, we buy a ticket for our astronauts to ride to low-Earth orbit, or a bill of lading for a cargo delivery to space station by a private operator. I want us to get to that point.”

Hauling cargo represents the grunt work of space exploration and, dominated by the space shuttle, it has long gobbled millions of dollars of NASA’s budget. The agency’s new vision hands that duty off to private companies that, freed from government paperwork, can do it more economically. This would free up more of the NASA budget for space exploration missions, Scimemi says.

Following the Capitol Hill mantra that saving money requires spending it, NASA has been signing big-ticket contracts with private space companies to match up their research and development with agency priorities. In February, NASA committed $170 million to Orbital Sciences of Dulles, Va., to help it develop reliable, economical vehicles to send cargo—and, eventually, people—into low-earth orbit. The agency has a similar agreement with Elon Musk's rocketeering powerhouse Space X, plus technology sharing deals (sans funding) with five other companies.

The second phase of NASA’s investment strategy involves renting these vessels for cargo hauling missions—a necessity after the space shuttle retires in 2010. Last month, the agency sought proposals for private cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station.

Financial support from NASA represents an important vote of confidence that should help space entrepreneurs leverage even more money from private investors, says XCOR Aerospace CFO Randy Baker. XCOR could take astronaut trainees or scientists to the edge of space on its small, agile spaceplanes for perhaps $250,000, compared to the many millions NASA spends on each launch. At the same time, however, Baker says the company’s business plan does not hinge on government support.

NASA has undergone a cultural revolution compared to the 1980s and 1990s in its attitude toward the private sector, says David Gump, president of Transformational Space Corp., which had an early contract with NASA to help design a new space capsule. He notes that NASA turned away Dennis Tito, the first suborbital tourist, but later tried to help pop star Lance Bass reach space. Gump says that signals the agency’s emphasis public attention and appeal, says Gump, who insists that even space exploration must have commercial value if it’s going to sustain itself over the long term.

Private companies, for instance, may find commercial opportunities in space—be it mining the moon or holding drawings for trips into space—that NASA might never notice or think to exploit. Those same opportunities may pay off for NASA by helping to make mass space transportation of cargo and crews more affordable, Gump says.

“The main challenge of going back to the moon is doing it sustainably and affordably,” he says. For that to happen, “We’ve got to move toward things that cost a lot less than they do now. ... Governments in general are not willing to step up and take the risk necessary to get to that point. In government, you’re only punished for failure. You’re not really rewarded for success.”

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