Art Dula is a space lawyer and enthusiast who has founded several aerospace companies. The author says that the problem facing
the space program is essentially a
budgetary one. To be more precise, NASA’s budgets are controlled by senators whose priorities are not the same as those of the scientific community. What sense, asks the author, does it make for spending on research to be controlled by senators with no background in - or any enthusiasm for - basic science? The net result is that the space program is not only over budget, but years behind schedule.
NASA is often accused of being an agency without a vision. Many of NASA’s planetary missions – which must be bread and better to a space agency – have either been
cancelled or delayed. The author says that the underlying problem with the space program is neither technical nor economic, but political.
NASA’s share of the budget has steadily declined from the 2 percent that it commanded at the height of the Apollo program. NASA, feels the author, does not lack in technical expertise, but in skilled administrators and in the political clout needed to defend budgetary allocations. As a result, many missions have had to be cancelled even though the rockets were ready to be launched.
The author says that the reason is not that federal funds are being wasted – but that senators from farm states find it difficult to identify with the aims and ambitions of space technology. At stake is nothing less than American leadership of the space program… The solution to this dilemma must be more free enterprise – and the commercial development of space. If more Americans are actively involved with the space program, and the future of the American taxpayer is tied to its long-term success, American senators would be more willing to support programs such as permanent bases on the Moon and the manned exploration of Mars.