In sci.space.policy Rand Simberg wrote:
On 24 Sep 2003 08:15:01 GMT, in a place far, far away,
(Tom Merkle) made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

WHAT COULD NASA
ACTUALLY DO BETTER OR DIFFERENT THAT WOULD HELP PUBLIC SPACE TRAVEL?

It could be a better customer, with more ambition for manned
spaceflight than sending a few government employees a year. It could
stop wasting billions on dead-end projects.

And precicely whom would they be buying that service from? Unless you
can demonstrate that NASA would not make use of 3rd party cheap access
to space, this claim is without merrit.

So it's NASA's job to encourage the private sector to pursue the
dreams of private individuals? Isn't that a little selfish? That's
using public funds to accomplish private ends.

It happens all the time.

Doesn't mean it should be so.


--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++