Re: SPACE: Cassini Mission Consequences

From: Richard Plourde (rplourde@andesign.mv.com)
Date: Tue Sep 23 1997 - 18:30:17 MDT


At 10:12 AM 9/23/97 -0500, Paul Hager wrote:

>> True, but government should not get totally out of the picture
until the
>> technological and infrastructure base is sufficient to be
economical,
>> with growth, not just self sufficiency.
>
>This may be -- let's say I'm somewhat agnostic on the subject of
whether
>or not a government needs to "prime the pump". But, assuming
that such
>may be necessary, I would want government involvement to be
minimal,
>indirect, and of limited duration.

As I understand it, a U.S. Federal law makes it illegal for a
private corporation to compete with NASA. Unfortunately, I
haven't been able to search down the references -- so my
understanding might merely represent folklore.

Request: anyone who *does* know the legality of U.S.-based
private launches, please illuminate. I note that, if significant
legal barriers exist, they would represent quite the opposite of
"pump priming."

-R

Richard Plourde .. rplourde@andesign.mv.com

   "The word is not the thing, the map is not the territory"
            http://www.crl.com/~isgs/isgshome.html
            http://www.general-semantics.org/



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