Marrying Public and Private Space Exploration Organizations

Editorials reflect the opinions of the entire editing staff of

The Current.

As space exploration moves into the private sector, government organizations like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX are exploring the boundaries of their budding relationship.

Following the incredible success of Tesla, Elon Musk took to the stars with the creation of his private space exploration company, SpaceX. He’s not the only one. Billionaires and venture capitalists the world over have begun developing new technologies and setting lofty goals for exploring the galaxy and beyond.

This poses a new problem for governments and their space exploration programs. While originally intended to explore deep space, NASA has had to take on tasks a little closer to home, like launching and monitoring earth-imaging satellites. As their budget faces deeper cuts under a Republican-controlled Congress, science for the sake of it is falling lower and lower on the to-do list.

To pick up the slack, companies like SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have started privately developing new rockets and aeronautic technologies that are likely to be immediately profitable. For SpaceX, this has meant creating re-launchable rockets that can successfully carry satellites into orbit and report back home for reuse. While SpaceX may be more commonly known for Musk’s Mars colonization goals, their efforts have been more practically focused on technologies that make them money.

Most of that profit is coming from the very same government organizations who cannot afford the research they do. In this sense, private space exploration companies are enabling organizations to purchase these technologies for a fraction of the cost of creating them from scratch.

For programs like NASA and the China National Space Administration (CNSA), which have annual budgets of $19.5 billion and $3 billion, respectively, being able to purchase ready-to-launch technologies can free up billions of dollars back into their budget. With NASA building a rocket that costs roughly $1 billion to launch, the $60 to $90 million price tag on smaller rockets from SpaceX and Blue Origin helps build a healthier budget.

While seemingly sharing the same goals, public and private sector exploration programs are allowed to function very differently when they exist and work together. With the private sector launching satellites and developing rockets, public sector programs can get back to more exploratory efforts and science for the sake of science. Missions like Juno, a probe to monitor Jupiter, hardly have any immediate economic value for private companies. The ability to focus on these efforts allows scientists to be scientists again.

While having these two sectors work together benefits them both, there is a major concern raised as private sector exploration grows: regulation. Understandably, government exploration programs are beholden to rigorous safety standards, especially when it comes to putting people in space. Such regulations don’t exist to the same extent for private companies, and while they haven’t put people in space yet, it’s a goal many companies hold.

SpaceX has gone so far as to sell tickets for a trip around the moon, despite currently lacking the capabilities to do so. When they can, will they have to follow the same regulations as NASA?

There’s also the common concern about private government contractors. Though SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing rockets and selling them to NASA for less than it would cost NASA to develop themselves, the limited size of the current market gives these companies power to overcharge and directly pocket taxpayer dollars. As information from public institutions is readily available, the private sector may use public technologies to grow their own private intellectual property, furthering the power imbalance between them.

When it comes to space exploration, public and private sector organizations need to form a symbiotic relationship. In sharing technologies and resources, public organizations are allowed to return to scientific discovery while investing information in private companies that can develop much-needed technologies for far less. This relationship absolutely must be well-regulated, both to protect the lives of private citizens and protect public institutions from parasitic capitalist endeavors.