Space spending has long been the multibillion-dollar government project that is rarely discussed and even more infrequently brought up as a primary focus by fiscal conservatives.
Tuesday morning the Competitive Space Task Force, a self-described group of fiscal conservatives and free-market leaders, hosted a press conference to encourage increased privatization of the space industry.
Members of the task force issued several recommendations to Congress, including finding an American replacement to the Space Shuttle (so to minimize the costly expenditures on use of Russian spacecraft) and encouraging more private investment in the development of manned spacecraft.
Former Republican Rep. Robert S. Walker of Pennsylvania said, “If we really want to ‘win the future’, we cannot abandon our commitment to space exploration and human spaceflight. The fastest path to space is not through Moscow, but through the American entrepreneur.”
Task Force chairman Rand Simberg, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said, “By opening space up to the American people and their enterprises, NASA can ignite an economic, technological, and innovation renaissance, and the United States will regain its rightful place as the world leader in space.”
Also speaking at the press conference was Tom Schatz of Citizens Against Government Waste.
Keith Cowing of NASA Watch wrote that he pressed Simberg about his feelings on the Obama administration’s priorities. He wrote that Simberg, “did not think that the President cared either way about space commercialization.”
Cowling also wrote that he “asked [Citizens Against Government Waste] how they can reconcile statements in support of commercial transport to the [International Space Station] when they have derided the [International Space Station] as a boondoggle for more than a decade. They said that they saw no contradiction.”