The classic player of the space game is very much active in shaping the new, privatized landscape of space travel and exploration. Although NASA is part of the US government, the agency recognizes the need to work with and fund private companies to remain competitive in the 21st century space age. In addition to its intentions to launch private 鈥渟pace taxis鈥� by 2017 and contracts to such companies as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences to transport cargo to the International Space Station, NASA requested $848 million for a commercial crew program in the .
NASA that 鈥渃ommercial space transportation is a vital component to the future of human space exploration. As NASA charts a new course to send humans deeper into space than ever before, we are stimulating efforts within the private sector to develop and operate safe, reliable and affordable commercial space transportation systems.鈥�
While private billionaires and entrepreneurs are pivotal in ferrying space cargo and envisioning human trips to the red planet, those have long been provinces of NASA, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Skeptics may scoff at the high price tag of such ventures as the International Space Station, which to date has and has been extended until at least 2024. But NASA scientists aboard the ISS are hard at work conducting research to advance the US space program and aid in possible future missions to asteroids and to Mars.
The agency, which has been called and has long contended with budget issues, is working alongside the youngest and most ambitious upstarts in the new space race, with the ultimate goal of sending humans beyond Earth鈥檚 orbit.
