Comments about ‘In our opinion: Privately funded rocket start of a new space age’

As sited in this article, for 51 years NASA has funded all the basic research and development for space exploration. Companies vied for and were awarded government money. When President Obama changed to equation to having the private sector fund and assume risk for basic research, and compete for lift business, cries came from the most unsuspected corners.

The cornerstone of the conservative movement has been that the government can't do anything right, and that it needs to get out of the way of the private sector. Obama took a most unliberal pro-captialist tact on this, doing exactly what conservatives asked, he turned the challenge over to those whom conservatives claimed were best equipped and motivated.

Yes, 51 years of habit does create conditions where change is scary. But Obama in doing exactly what capitalist across this nation claim to want, and flew into resistance from this very same group including the Deseret News. Very odd. Perhaps change is truly hard, even when it is change in the direction you want. But what this flight represents is the first step in realizing the dream of capitalist across this nation, even if it was initiated by a "socialist" President.

SpaceX received $300 million from NASA for R&D. SpaceX is no more "private" enterprise than ATK.

Blue So does Duke University for varoous types of research. So did Oracle and Intel in their early days. IBM also received money to help develop the first large scale computing environment. So does ExxonMobile and Shell today. Receiving a government grant does not equat to not being a "private" enterprise.

UtahBlueDevil
Durham, NC
5:58 a.m. May 23, 2012

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Agreed!

I remember every conservative in Utah squealing like stuck pigs when Pres. Obama - by the advice of NASA itself - cancelled the Government pork, and re-directed low-earth orbit mission [milk runs] to the International Space Satation to the Private sector.

Like Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus,Lewis & Clark and the InterNet before --
Government sanctioned [i.e., paid for] discovery and setting-up of Out-Posts gave way to opening up new markets and trade routes to bold New Worlds.

I applaud our evil "Socialist" President who had to good sense to ignore his political Republican opponents and actually did as they said, and not as they did -- by getting Government out of the day to day milk runs and operations of the Low-Earth-Orbit,
by privatizing, commercializing and captializing Space.

Unless some political motivation develops, I find the likelyhood of NASA ever returning to manned deep-space exploration about as high as that of the FAA starting up a national airline. If the federal government is to be involved in fundamental space research at all, it will be for military purposes and to measure the temperature of the oceans and atmosphere (where there is already political motivation at work).

Just one more thing Obama has gotten right.

LDS Aerospace Engineer,

There's a difference between looking at this with a positive and wholesome attitude and viewing it with resentment and cynicism. I don't know how you feel, but painting others as "squealing like stuck pigs" doesn't exactly make your comment the most inviting.

And even if you think you and Obama hold the right opinion, saying "see, I told you do" certainly isn't appropriate. I'm terribly sorry, I just don't appreciate a comment that does nothing but disparage others.

Yeah old man, even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then. Obama did what smart people told him to do, nothing more. The man still has a bad plan moving forward and he refuses to listen to smart people because the agenda means more to him in certain areas.