NASA to work with private industry

[unixronin]

More details on NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe's announcement on Thursday ...

The panel said in its final report last week: "NASA's relationship to the private sector, its organizational structure, business culture and management processes -- all largely inherited from the Apollo era -- must be decisively transformed to implement the new, multi-decadal space exploration vision."

Among other recommendations, the panel said NASA should rely more on private industry for its space objectives.

...

However, he added that the transformed agency would be able to call on the talents of private aeronautical professionals, such as SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan.

"We can create an environment to motivate the Burt Rutans and folks like them to continue to excel and do great things ... making what we have more freely available, more accessible and by being a friendlier environment to entrepreneurs," O'Keefe said.

Excellent!

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

If Burt and Dick and John and such people are smart, they'll tell the gooberment to go piss up a rope. They're doing just fine without them.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure they are. But their life is gonna be easier without the turf-warriors in NASA trying to play roadblock because They're Not NASA, They're Not Allowed To Do That. I don't for a moment think Burt and Dick et al need any help from the gubmint. But what this says to me is that the gubmint is doing the one thing that it actually can do that will help Burt and buddies: that being, getting the hell outa the way.

And hey, if the gubmint ends up sending additional business Burt's way ... great. Can't possibly hurt. If he doesn't want to carry a particular payload, he can just say "No, take it to somebody else."

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think NASA will try to co-opt it and kill it, a la Microsoft... but keep in mind that the *FAA*, not NASA, is regulating commercial space travel... and the FAA loves Burt. The meatball boys can try..... but if they do, Burt will just tell Mike to go fire up N328KF and go give'em another 200,000-foot digitus impudicus, and that'll be the end of it.

NASA is furious, horribly embarassed, and totally out of their league here. There's not any way for NASA to get out of; Dick and Burt did the legwork on that two years ago. (They knew damn good and well that if NASA regulated commercial spaceflight, they'd NIMBY it into oblivion, so they went to the FAA, and got them to license it.... this was X-Cor, mostly, but I'm sure Burt had a hand in it, too... )

But, yeah, the boys in Mojave basically have the luxury of telling NASA "my way or the highway"... and making it stick.