terça-feira, junho 15, 2004

Nasa deve se tornar menos "estatal"

Li ontem, acho, no yahoo [UPDATED: não...tá aqui: The Washington Post].

E o pessoal do CATO não perdeu tempo. Olha a análise deles aí: We Must Reach for the Stars.

Trecho: (The Washington Post) - The commission, chaired by former astronaut Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., was asked to make recommendations needed to implement the new initiative and report within four months. A commission spokesman said members were unable to comment on the report yesterday because most were traveling to Washington for the formal release ceremony. NASA did not respond to the report because officials said they had not seen it.

Still, decision makers have long been aware that the key focus of the report would be to nurture a space industry that breaks what the commission called NASA's "Apollo-era" model -- initiatives controlled by the government through its private-sector contractors.

But several experts, including Michael Beavin, director of government relations for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a nonprofit trade organization, noted that the "commercial space industry" does not really exist:

"It's been around for a while, but primarily it's only had only one customer -- the federal government," Beavin said in a telephone interview. "We really are at the beginning, and NASA needs to reach out to the entrepreneurs."