Commercial Space is Safe
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Posted
by Jeffrey Manber at
10/16/2009 10:11 AM CDT
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The Wall St. Journal has published an op-ed piece that is must reading: "Commercial Space Flight, All Systems Go!
It's must reading for all concerned whether genuine reform will come to the civilian space industry. What makes it significant is the fact that the writers represent a cross section of America's astronaut corps from Apollo to Space Shuttle, and yet puncture the trial balloon being floated by opponents of the Augustine Commission that operating more commercial, like the rest of American industry, is somehow not best for the aerospace and space industries.
The thrust of the piece takes aim on the chorus of those who insinuate that there is no room for industrial innovation in space, because any change threatens the safety and efficiency of current and future programs.
Writes the authors: Increased use of public-private partnerships—where commercial companies assume a larger role in developing the systems to be used for space transportation—is one promising path to strengthen our nation's space exploration programs. Public-private partnerships can leverage the agility and efficiency of the commercial sector while maintaining access to the skilled workers, technologies and facilities only available in the government.
The astronauts affixing their name to the piece are Buzz Aldrin, Ken Bowersox, Jake Garn, Robert Gibson, Hank Hartsfield, John Herrington, Byron Lichtenberg, John Lounge, Rick Searfoss, Norman Thagard, Kathryn Thornton, Jim Voss and Charles Walker.
We are finally coming to terms with the need to change. Russia hit this wall a decade ago, and their astronauts were at first split on the need to institute change at the risk of increased safety. But they worked it out--and the launch rates and success rate has been unchanged even while production lines were made more efficient (layoffs) and non-traditional sources of revenue were accepted (space tourism, foreign commercial partners like ESA and NASA and the like).
Russia kept the program alive by utilizing the principals of the modern marketplace and accepting their own domestic political realities. Old notions were recognized as no longer beneficial to their national space exploration.
So it shall be in America. As the Wall Street piece explains: As astronauts, we know that safety is important. We are fully confident that the commercial spaceflight sector can provide a level of safety equal to that offered by the venerable Russian Soyuz system, which has flown safely for the last 38 years, and exceeding that of the Space Shuttle.
Finally, it is said. The elephant in the room. The Russians have operated a program on a higher level of safety than America. while running a program based to a greater degree than here on commercial principals.
Good. Thanks to astronauts like these, we can begin implementing, for the first time in decades, a new space policy at the start of an administration.
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