Artist's illustration of Blue Origin's powerful New Glenn rocket, which is scheduled to fly for the first
time in 2021. Credit: Blue Origin
The capability to go to space is the capability to rain tungsten rods down upon the earth.
It will not.
Private space travel will always be 5 to 10 years away.
It will never arrive.
It should cause NASA to be shut down.
JoMa
Just the possibility of “private” space travel could be providing the impetus for the focus on a “Space Force”. Gazillionaires, like Soros, could finance attacks from outer space; space-terrorists to wreak havoc on America, and it’s allies.
Also, America’s superior military strength would be for naught if another country attacked us from space.
Reagan’s “Star Wars” initiative doesn’t seem so “far-fetched” as time and technology advances. The best offense is a good defense.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson has a great video about this on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAdAcZFsTpw Short version (with some of my opinions blended in): Government entities have a place in opening up new frontiers because no method exists to establish a capital valuation for a bunch of reasons. But once a frontier is opened up, costs, risks, and profits can be determined, and then the private sector comes in. Uses an analogy to sea exploration by Europeans with respect to the Americas. His opinion: NASA should have been out of the job of shipping stuff to orbit decades ago. Private companies should have taken over. Well, they finally are, and then NASA can more on to expanding frontiers.
*ping*