Washington Post Endorses Commercial Human Space Flight

An editorial in today’s Washington Post issued a rallying call for NASA to embrace entrepreneurial space companies. Here’s an excerpt:

“Now that the station is nearly complete, this might be an optimal time to open space to entrepreneurs. Many companies claim they possess the capacity to transport humans and payloads into space; the [Augustine] review committee found their reports convincing enough to suggest that these space entrepreneurs could take over the transport of astronauts and supplies to the space station after the shuttle program ends.

“It’s time to boldly go where no man has gone before. That means opening space to the kind of private-sector competition that revolutionized cyberspace and making sure the next human exploratory efforts are based on real scientific need.”