Uneasy Rhetoric

The privately funded SpaceShipOne’s recent flight marked a great leap forward for space exploration, but those who claim this as a demonstration of the power of private enterprise over public investment are fooling themselves.

The science of spaceflight owes its existence to hundreds of billions of dollars of public investment from NASA, the military, and public research institutions like the University of California. Government laid the foundation for SpaceShipOne through advances in rocketry, chemistry, materials, computers, flight, and more.

It is unlikely that private enterprise would have spent that kind of money in a venture so speculative and with so little hope of short-term profit.

Accounts of SpaceShipOne’s cost, $20 million, make it sound cheap compared to other space programs. However, without NASA and the decades of expensive science it developed, investor Paul Allen may have had to wipe out his entire fortune, and then some, to build SpaceShipOne.

Those involved with SpaceShipOne should be proud of their accomplishment. They should also realize they stand on the shoulders of the government giant. They could never have reached space without it.