Commercialization of Space: Policy and Administration Issues
本文探讨了里根政府推动太空商业化的政策与行政问题，包括私有化航天器和卫星系统，对研究政府与市场关系的学者有参考价值。
On July 4, 1982, President Reagan welcomed home the crew of the space shuttle Columbia from its fourth and final test flight. Standing in the desert at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the president said, fourth landing of the Columbia is the historic equivalent of the driving of the golden spike which completed the first transcontinental railroad. It marks our entrance into a new era. The test flights are over, the groundwork has been laid and now we will move forward to capitalize on the tremendous potential offered by the ultimate frontier of space.' Since that Independence Day, the Reagan administration has pushed hard to help private industry capitalize on space. Private firms are now in the business of launching space vehicles from the ground and in developing rocket boosters to propel satellites from the space shuttle to higher orbits. The administration is helping firms to commercialize the Atlas-Centaur, Delta, and Titan launchers.2 The administration proposed selling the existing weather and land remote sensing (Landsat) satellite systems to private industry. The weather satellite has been blocked by Congress, but the administration got the go-ahead from Congress Landsat.3 The space shuttle itself may have a for sale sign on its fuselage in the near future, although NASA's advisers have cautioned that the shuttle needs more government development work before it is privatized. The administration has already taken the first step towards turning all shuttle operations to private hands by awarding a contract shuttle processing.4 Consistent with its philosophy that the private sector usually performs functions more effectively and with less cost than government, the administration foresees the day when competition and deregulation will be the hallmarks of civilian operations in space.