The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is self-serving, and short sighted. Where do they think future engineers are going to come from? India I suppose.
“Where do they think future engineers are going to come from? India I suppose.”
India, China, Russia etc - countries which parents demand their children study hard and get excellent grades.
And those kids will stay home where the opportunities are, not come to the US where navel lint studies has ascendance. Back in 2002 US kids who wanted to go into space were already talking about moving to countries where there are real opportunities. What do you imagine they are saying and thinking now?
(When Bush announced the Moon to Mars program many kids went to the hearings - all walked away in fustration at the shear buraurcatic nightmare that the US space program had become. The kids could see that the solutions offered by the panels were just recipies for more of the same on a larger scale.
None of them were particularily thrilled at the idea of working for some private company whose focus was space advertizing or toutism. They thought big, not small as private companies tend to do).