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America Needs A New Space Program

© Bryan Johnson

American Apollo astronauts Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmidt launched their lunar module ascent stage off of the moon on December 14, 1972. No one has been back since. Even at that time, as America's Apollo space program was winding down, funding was shrinking, and NASA's plans included the ill-fated Skylab, the U.S. space program planned to establish a permanent human presence on the moon, and eventually Mars. In the process, America would develop a commercial space industry that would be rivaled by no other country.

Today, America has neither a viable space exploration program, nor does it have a viable commercial space industry. In fact, while America led the world in space achievement by landing on the moon, it has failed miserably since. Indeed, countries like Japan and China, as well as the European Union have commercial space industries far more competitive and advanced than the U.S.

What went wrong?

For one thing, NASA spent far too much money telling the American public and the U.S. Congress that the space shuttle would reduce spacelift costs and empower the U.S. with the ability to make a more permanent move to the moon. For another, selfishly hogging all spacelift capabilities, NASA was reluctant to spin off space services to the private sector that should have been done decades ago. Finally, NASA failed to do more with less, something that America's defense forces have done for over a decade.

The Space Shuttle Debacle

When the last Apollo mission to the moon lifted off from the Cape in 1972, it cost the American taxpayers $3,800 per pound to put something in space. NASA, along with a skeptical Congress and Administration haunted by Watergate and Vietnam, determined this as too expensive for America to afford. But NASA has an answer. They would build a partially re-usable spacecraft that would drastically cut costs, making space cheaper to operate in.

However, the result wasn't what NASA promised. Instead, the U.S. taxpayers got a program that, measured in constant dollars, cost over $6,000 per pound to put something in space. And that is using NASA's numbers. But others, including Alex Roland of Duke University estimate that the cost of a Shuttle flight is not the $350 million claimed by NASA, but actually is over $2 billion.

Thus, the space shuttle never did save NASA money. It never did make space travel less expensive. And it never did serve as a stepping stone to a farther-reaching U.S. space program.

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