Americans Need Space, Break Up With NASA

The White House is nixing Bush's moon shoot and using some of the cash to incentivize private space enterprise companies. Reactions have ranged from "About time!" to "But! No! Super-expensive space shuttles are awesome! Also, America! And maybe national security!"

Savvy nerdonaut Rand Simberg applauds the decision, and chastises conservatives for their negative response to what is essentially a privatization of the space program:

If the choice is between having no space program at all, and the current one, perhaps the latter is preferable. But if the choice is spending the taxpayers' money to create wealth and new industries while actually accomplishing things in space and perhaps finally opening it up for the rest of us, versus a wasteful jobs program for Marshall Spaceflight Center, I know which I'd prefer. The new administration plans will take us much more in that direction, and on the rare occasion that it gets something right, true conservatives should be applauding it, rather than recycling hoary tropes about "staying close to home," and "going nowhere." Sadly, it was the misbegotten policy of the previous administration that was doing that. At least in this area, it's change I can believe in.

Via Eric Jon Magnuson