Why the Opposition to Commercial Space from Republicans?

One of the issues arising from the debate over President Obama's proposal to cancel the Constellation program and to commercialize space travel is what some regard as an odd response of Republican lawmakers toward the proposal.

Some Republicans have expressed skepticism toward commercial space travel and have championed the "public option" of continuing the development of the Orion launched by the Ares 1 to the International Space Station. This seeming "role reversal" of Republicans favoring government over the private sector and President Obama favoring the private sector over government has been mentioned more than once by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher R-California.

Rohrabacher; a long time supporter of commercial space efforts, sparred with Tom Young, a former aerospace executive, during a recent hearing on President Obama's proposal, known also as Obamaspace, conducted by a House panel that oversees NASA and NASA funding. Young expressed opposition to the commercial space initiative.

"U.S. Rep.Dana Rohrabacher, R-California, argued against Young's logic and said that the U.S. has a long tradition of relying on commercial companies for domestic priorities, including delivering mail by air or building railroads to link the nation's cities.

"He said using commercial companies could significantly reduce government costs and still do the mission, citing upcoming efforts by SpaceX to launch the first flight of its Falcon 9 rocket after getting less than $300 million from NASA to design a spacecraft capable of transporting cargo.

"'They have done it on a minuscule [budget] amount compared to what NASA has already spent on the Ares project," he said. "If we are going to do space, we better do it cost effectively and doing it cost effectively is not relying on the government.'"

Rohrabacher is virtually alone in the Congress in supporting Obamaspace, though he seems more attracted to the commercial space aspect and has not mentioned the cancellation of Constellation.

Why are many Republicans, ordinarily supportive of private business, so irate about the space commercialization proposal in Obamaspace? There are at least two reasons, one political and one philosophical.

The political reason is that President Obama has managed to link commercial space with the ending of efforts to explore space, at least in the minds of many lawmakers. Not known for nuance, members of Congress have simplified their opposition to Obamaspace and have not taken the time to confine their opposition to ending space exploration, while supporting some of the more attractive things, such as space commercialization.

Under the Bush policy, space commercialization and space exploration were complimentary. The private sector was to take over Earth to low Earth orbit transportation gradually, freeing NASA to do cutting edge beyond low Earth orbit exploration. The Orion/Ares 1 system was meant as an insurance policy against none of the commercial space companies managing to step up with their own space craft in time. Thus, commercial space was viewed with greater favor than it is now that President Obama is trying to scuttle space exploration efforts.

The philosophical reason is that many lawmakers, of both parties, regard space craft that carry humans as national security assets. In their minds, one would no more commercialize space ships than one would commercialize aircraft carriers. Supporters of commercial space respond that even the US military leases commercial aircraft to supplement military transports to move troops and supplies around.

In any event it could actually be argued that the commercial space initiative of Obamaspace does not go far enough. While using servicing ISS as a core market to encourage the development of a commercial space industry is very important, more could be done to encourage private markets for the same.

Ironically, Dana Rohrabacher himself has, from time to time, advanced an idea called "Zero G, Zero Taxes" that would, in effect, make space an enterprise zone, eliminating taxes for goods and services created in space. Perhaps it is now time to advance that idea again, if only to test President Obama's odd support of capitalism in space, while he assails it on Earth.

Source:House panel vows to save Constellation, Mark Matthews, Orlando Sentinel, March 24th, 2010