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NASA pullout could cut 'hope' short, USA Today
"The space shuttle Discovery, scheduled for liftoff Saturday, will take to orbit a project nearly 25 years and $1 billion in the making: one of the biggest laboratories ever built for the International Space Station. Excitement over the launch is tempered by concern that the lab's mission may be cut short if NASA follows through on its plan to withdraw from the station after 2015."
NASA Sets Briefing On New Space Station National Lab Partners
"NASA will hold a briefing at 11 a.m. EDT, Friday, May 30, to discuss new opportunities to use the International Space Station's unique research environment. The briefing will originate from NASA's Kennedy Space Center and be broadcast live on NASA Television."
There is a curious dichotomy at work here...not of good and evil, but the private sector and NASA.
When the United States was being settled, the government would assume all of the risks and establish forts. Soon afterwards, the private sector followed. Forts grew into cities, and the frontier moved westward.
With the knowledge that history repeats itself, the government has established a "fort" on the Final Frontier, and wishes to expand that frontier. But where, oh where, is the private sector?
Instead of following the path set forth by history, the private sector toys around with sub-orbital flights.
Space exploration is difficult...next to oceanography, it's the toughest endeavour (spelled correctly, thank you!) humankind has ever attempted.
Perhaps the ancient paradigm does not fit here...private industry should for now concentrate on getting payloads to the "fort" using the vessels (ships, Conestoga wagons, OV-series orbiters) that the government once used...anyone ever hear of "government surplus"? Once profitable, private industry will have its seed money for development of better ways to get things and people off-planet.
I see a perfect opportunity for the nascent private spaceflight enterprises to step up to the bar, and put their money where their mouths are.
Or perhaps they have calculated the risk factors, and have decided that yet another business paradigm better describes their businesses: short-term profits.