“We expected a launch market that was going to take off. We expected tourism to take off. We expected the ability to do research and technology development on the International Space Station, bring it back to Earth and mass produce it…We’re not seeing any of those three things.”
–Statement by Joel Montalbano, NASA’s acting associate administrator for space operations, addressing the need for NASA to build onto the current International Space Station (ISS), which is part of the newly announced NASA space initiatives. Mr. Montalbano was speaking at a March 25th hearing before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. The vice ranking member of the full committee, Rep. George Whitesides (D-CA), questioned NASA’s new approach, stating:
Based on the old plan, several companies raised probably in excess of $2 billion in private capital and did so on the expectation that NASA would follow through…My concern is that if NASA is not a reliable partner for private investors, we’re not going to get that money and we’re not going to then save money by being able to cost-share with the private sector.
Our Awesome Universe 