NASA, the International Space Station, and the Private Sector

[Frodo]

Is it a good thing or a bad thing that NASA is opening the International Space Station to private corporations?

How NASA is evolving through partnerships with private space companies

Companies are increasingly looking to space as a place of business, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been changing in several different ways, especially by partnering with corporations to develop new technologies.

Earlier this year NASA announced it would open the International Space Station to private astronauts, with short missions beginning as soon as 2020. Additionally, NASA said it would allow companies to bid for new activities on the space station, as the agency unveiled a directive to “enable commercial manufacturing and production” in space.

The space station has been touted as a stepping-stone toward creating an ecosystem of business in orbit around the Earth, so companies can manufacture, experiment, advertise and even host tourists. After NASA’s announcement, agency CFO Jeff DeWit spoke to CNBC about how more companies involved in the space station will “lower the cost and lower the risk” of doing business in outer space.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

As long as NASA isn't subsidizing those private companies, I couldn't care less what they do with the International Pork Barrel.

[Person Man]

In theory, the objectives of NASA, outside of pure science and exploration, should be to make itself obsolete.