Amahri Snipes

Instructor: Malcom Campbell

UWRT 1104

November 6, 2017

The Privatization of Space and the Future It Holds for Space Travel

Going to space has always been a government controlled activity. The first man made

object in space and even the first man on the moon were achieved through the labor of two

governments racing for extraterrestrial dominance. American dreams of space travel have always Commented [CO1]: I think you should use Has.

rested on NASA and on their heels of their successes, as well as in the shadow of their failures. Commented [CO2]: I think you should put the.

The government had always had a hand in space travel. Even with severe budgets cuts and a Commented [CO3]: I think has should

dwindling public interest in space. This was the case until 2004, when private space travel was

made legal and the first private vessel made its way into space.

-touch on SpaceShipOne- Commented [CO4]: Reminder

As of today, one of the biggest names in private space travel is Elon Musk. Elon Musk is

the founder and CEO of SpaceX. He earned his Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree at the

University of Pennsylvania in 1994. SpaceX has changed the face of the private industry and the

way many view space. The company is making big strides in space travel, especially with the

development of its Falcon 9 rockets. The Falcon 9 are a family of two-stage rockets that are

helmed for their ability to have the first stage of the rocket land back on Earth to be reused. This

has huge implications for the future of missions to space, It also has big plans for the future, the

most outstanding of which are plans to go to mars * Insert elon musk quote about mars*- Commented [CO5]: Reminder

As of right now, the face of the private sector of space rest on companies landing special

contracts with NASA. These Commercial Resupply Contracts are essentially NASA
commissioning private companies to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). This

is a mutually beneficially relationship, NASA gets supplies to the ISS without having to spend as

much money and the private companies profit. Considering it costs $10,000 per pound to get

things into space, these contracts are crucial in getting important supplies into space. With these

contracts companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic can spend money on researching new

technologies.

An interesting argument is brought against private space travel is what happens if it all

goes private? What happens to NASA as we know it? According to Robert Frost, NASAs Flight

Operations Directorate that has trained astronauts and flight controllers on the guidance,

navigation, control & propulsion of the International Space Station for ten years, NASA had no

threat to worry about from the private sector. "The role of government in space exploration is to

do the things that the market cant support, but the people agree are beneficial" says Frost,

"When we send a spacecraft like New Horizons to take close up pictures of Pluto, we do so

because, as a people, we understand that science is important. We understand that learning about

the universe is good for our society." He expresses how the privatization of space isnt meant to

replace government involvement in space, only to complement the already existing system.

If everything was private, it would impede the advancement of science. For private companies,

no matter how noble the venture may seem, at the end of the day the project must turn a profit in

order to please shareholders and continue progress so that the company does not shut down.

Imagine having to pay every single time you wanted to see the latest pictures a deep space

telescope had taken. All the research and discoveries NASA makes are for the advancement of

human knowledge of outer space, which is why their findings are public. If this was moved to

the private sector, the advancement of knowledge would be locked behind a paywall. The
balance of private to government is a beneficial one, one that should help science in the long

run.

One of the main benefits of privatizing space travel is how much NASA saves on

expenses. It is extremely expensive to get things into space, and with NASA's budget sitting at

around 18.4 billion dollars, less than 1% of the federal budget, it severely hinders the progress

NASA is able to make. This amount of money is enough to sustain ongoing projects, it is not

enough to fund new ventures, and some existing programs still needed to be cut, like when the

Space Shuttle Program famously shut down in 2011. With our space shuttle decommissioned,

NASA must rely on the Russian Soyuz rocket to get American astronauts into space. A single

ticket on the Russian craft can cost anywhere from $52 million to $70

million dollars (Space.com). This means NASA could spend nearly 1.6 billion dollars per trip to

the ISS, or roughly 11.25% of its entire annual budget. With these costs mitigated with help

from private companies NASA is able to focus what little budget they have into other projects.

An article written by Nayef Al-Rodhan in the Geneva Centre for Public Security

Policy touches on an interesting point. It talks about the theoretical liability of a company versus

the government. If a something failed and resulted in one or more fatalities when NASA was at

the helm it would be easy to recover because it is viewed as a symptom of progress "because

there were no alternatives to government space programs, accidents were seen to some degree as

par for the course."(Nayef). Also, for governments, there no shareholders to please. However, if

a private company were to have an accident that resulted in one or more fatalities the

implications would be different because theyre a public entity. For private companies, they have

unlimited liability for those types of situations. Everything that goes wrong can immediately be

traced back to them and this has huge effect on how the public will view the company going
forward. Say if Virgin Galactic had an accident where they lost 5 astronauts, there would be

massive public outcry, their stock would go down and the company would overall sustain huge

losses. Now let's say that in light of Virgin Galactic's critical failure, Space X maintains it's near

flawless track record. This would trust the company even further into public favor. It's interesting

to see how private companies effect and influence things like this.

Space has always been in the background of human thought. Since the space race, interest

in space had declined, as well as government support for the program. However, human curiosity

prevailed as entrepreneurs are pushing past boundaries and making their way into space. Its very

interesting hoe private companies are cementing themselves in the quest to reach space and the Commented [CO6]: how

relationship they share with government entities like NASA. These companies have changed the

how people view space travel and will undoubtedly change the future. Commented [CO7]: Insert way for how

Commented [CO8]: Great paper man very informative.

 Works Cited

Achenbach, Joel. Which Way to Space? The Washington Post, WP Company LLC. 23 Nov

2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2013/11/23/which-way-to-

space/?utm_term=.b69d31c7a400 Accessed 12 Oct 2017.

Al-Rodhan, Nayef. THE PRIVATIZATION OF SPACE: WHEN THINGS GO WRONG.

Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Geneva Centre for Security Policy. 14 Aug 2015.

http://www.gcsp.ch/News-Knowledge/Global-insight/The-Privatization-of-Space-When-

Things-Go-Wrong Accessed 17 Oct 2017.

Frost, Robert. The Pros And Cons Of Privatizing Space Exploration. Forbes, B.

C. Forbes. 04 Apr 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/04/04/the-pros-and-

cons-of-privatizing-space-exploration/#6958ffed3319 Accessed 17 Oct 2017.

Redd, Nola Taylor. Scientists See Big Rewards (and Risk) in Private Spaceflight Space.com,

Purch. 22 Jan 2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2013/11/23/which-way-

to-space/?utm_term=.b69d31c7a400 Accessed 7 Nov 2017.

Rees, Martin. Mars needs millionaires. Foreign Policy, (137), 90. Carnegie Endowment for

International Peace. July/Aug 2003. Retrieved from

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-

com.librarylink.uncc.edu/docview/224032865?accountid=14605 Accessed 14 Oct 2017

Fernholz, Tim. The Complete Visual History of SpaceXs single-minded pursuit of rocket

reusability QZ, Quartz Media LLC. 01 Jul 2017. https://qz.com/1016072/a-multimedia-

history-of-every-single-one-of-spacexs-attempts-to-land-its-booster-rocket-back-on-

earth/ Accessed 7 Nov 2017