Space cannot remain strictly government. Its like sending Louis and Clark west and keeping everything west of the Mississippi hidden from us.
Unlike many here, I see a role for government in space in the pathfinding, prospecting, and defensive roles but they can’t keep it to themselves. SpaceX is only working a government contract like Boeing or Halliburton but they’ll get beyond the government contracts and benefit us all in the future.
Indeed..
You make an important point.
SpaceX is treading a pathway into space laid down by govenment research. No serious person ought to overlook the tremendous investment of taxpayer dollars and government/commercial effort needed to get to this point. But, to give President Obama credit, we do now know this technology well enough that routine missions to low earth orbit should transition from government to commercial execution.
Once SpaceX (and other commercial competitors) demonstrate they can safely, reliably, and economically deliver cargo and passengers to earth orbit(economically being a relative term here), investors are going to want to develop places other than the ISS for those delivery vehicles to go to. That demand/need will, in turn, drive the competition for customers and engineering creativity needed for the “commercialization of space” to become a realty.
None of us will be around to see space commercialization in full bloom, but a successful SpaceX mission to ISS is truly going to be a major moment in human spacefaring history.
I wish them luck.