An eye for an eye only leaves the bad people blind.

Now I would condemn that same as I would all the Marshall bashing. It’s ugly and unhelpful. James Hillhouse of AmericaSpace said Old Space and New should be praising each other. An eye for an eye leaves all blind.

The freedom to build our own private space station is what makes America exceptional. American Exceptionalism is the freedom to try new things and to be able to find efficiencies that government fails to find. Freedom from government control allows these exceptional things to be tried and accomplished by We the People.

The Statue of Liberty was intended not to be a beacon to beckon the world to come here but to be a beacon that spread this freedom to the rest of the world, a beacon to show the world how to do it. This intention was lost when the stupid selection committee chose that horrible poem to put at the base of the statue.

Past attempts at spreading American freedom around the world have failed, because those who tried did not understand the subtle distinction between natural rights and rights granted by government. Our Constitution and Declaration of Independence acknowledge that people are born with natural, or God given, rights. These rights cannot be taken away from people, but they can be usurped. Around the world, human rights documents are written differently, that the rights are granted by governing bodies and are not inherent to the populace. Even the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights grants humanity its rights, and the UN can take away those rights at a whim, per Article 29(3).

The difference is that We the American People can “just do it,” while others can only do what their governments allow them to do. On a daily basis, neither population feels the difference, but American Exceptionalism is why America has accomplished so much. We just do it. If we want to try to land a booster rocket, two companies just did it. If we want to put a civilian into suborbital space, Peter Diamandis can set that as an X-Prize, several companies and people can try to do it, and Scaled Composites can just do it. Build a Panama Canal? Americans rethought the French attempt and just did it. Werner von Braun wanted to go to the Moon, so he came to America, and America let him just do it and even funded him. Secure online payments? Musk also comes to America and just did it. Take your money made from creating online payments and invest in other companies? Musk just did those things, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuv0K8H8ILM (12 minutes, Bill Whittle: What we Believe, Part7)

Adding regulations to “just doing it” is anti-American. American Exceptionalism requires that government not overstep, that government be limited in its powers, that government be for the people, not the other way around. It is anti-American for the current administration to do as BillB thinks it will. But BillB may be correct, that our current administration may do just that, as tyranny, not freedom, seems to be its goal. This administration seems bound and determined to usurp our natural freedoms, despite our Constitution.

The ISS has not brought about much change for we planet-bound, because the government limits and regulates what can be done there. Had we been free to do as we pleased, if we had just done it, then we would have many more goods and services available to us. Government assigned NASA to be a gatekeeper to space, and we have neither seen or explored the promise that we thought we had, back in the 1960s. Why didn’t We the People just do it? Because we expected NASA’s Space Shuttle to give us low cost frequent access to space, and we depended upon NASA to just do it. With commercial space removing the governmental gatekeeper, we should quickly realize that 1960s potential.

NASA should be a lesson as to how even a benevolent government can actually be malevolent.

Show congress the increased price of launches and then show them the (new)comparative value of SLS/Orion.

Will they have the infrastructure to handle a launch company?

The board I ask for—and NASA chiefs—should be like Supreme Court Justices…and serve for life if they are pro-industry, pro infrastructure and pro HLLV

Not as implemented. Had they announced their price change in advance and allowed a couple of years for launch of an independent space station, then we could have had commercial operations on ISS now with a transition to commercial space stations in two or three years. Instead, we have now lost much of our ability to find the markets for commercial operations on space stations, which could give us an idea of the number of commercial space stations that we will need in the next five years. We have lost our ability to plan ahead. Government is very good at messing up the ability of businesses to plan ahead, and this current administration is even better than most. This fits in with john hare’s point, too.

Jeff asked: “why would USA govt allow a private space station? especially one that competes with its own and uses contractors outside of its control?”

The current NASA plan is to not build another government space station but to transition to commercial space stations. ISS is not expected to last much longer than 2028, and NASA has no plan to replace it. If we don’t go commercial, then we will be at the mercy of China for space station access. The Russians are thinking of making their own space station, but their idea currently depends upon using the aging Russian portion of ISS.

Doubting Thomas,
A third company, Ixion (NanoRacks), has been planning to build space habitats.

pzatchok,
NASA has pricing control over the Commercial Resupply and Commercial Crew flights that it has contracted with SpaceX, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, and Sierra Nevada. These are the flights that are affected by these changes.

Elections matter, and this is why stolen elections are a bad thing. In an anti-American turn of events, We the People did not choose the administration that is imposing these prices on us.

If NASA charges more for ride alongs on Space X flights (Small sat side loads)Space X can just charge NASA more to counter the increased cost.

And what does Russia have to say about these increased costs to fly to their part of the ISS?

Jeff: I wonder if you have ever heard of a document called the Constitution. The USA government does not by law have the right to forbid such a station.

Not that we follow the law that much any more, mostly because of ignorance illustrated above.

As long as he contractors remember to do business with the lobbyists on K street.

As of December 9, 2020:

“The National Space Policy recognizes that a robust, innovative, and competitive commercial space sector is foundational to economic development, continued progress, and sustained American leadership in space. It commits the United States to facilitating growth of an American commercial space sector that supports the nation’s interests, is globally competitive, and advances American leadership in the generation of new markets and innovation-driven entrepreneurship.”

https://www.space.commerce.gov/policy/national-space-policy/

Much like raising the minimum wage makes retail automation more feasible.

OTOH Warren has a good point.

Another problem with zero price is that the item in question is dependent on the goodwill of the giver. That goodwill erodes in proportion to the lack of connection to the values of the giver. Look at the backlash on various forms of welfare in whatever name it’s serving under this week. A large segment of the taxpayers footing the bill would zero most of the programs today if they could. Not through hatred or control impulse, but because most of the programs are damaging to both the country and the recipients of the “free” largess. And are tired of the constant accusations by the free riders. ISS would have a variation of the problem, as witness the adverse reactions to this attempt to slow the flow of red ink. People not paying full market price eventually feel entitled to the unearned after which it gets ugly.

The government could charge a dollar for transporting payloads to the ISS and operating them there. The fact that this would lose money hand over fist would not matter to them. But it would kill any market for commercial space station operations since an operation that has to make money could not compete against an organization that can extort all the money it needs from the taxpayers.

By setting their prices so high the government has opened a door that commercial operators can rush through and establish a commercial alternative to the government funded ISS.

Looks like a win for the rest of us.

I say “Well Done!” (sarc off) Let the unintended consequences begin.
I’m sure Elon & Bigalow can think of a few opportunities a half those prices.

Within the next two years Starship and New Glenn will be ramping up their to orbit cadences. Between those two systems, anticipated to be far more reasonably priced than any previous systems, the sheer tonnage to orbit will increase by at least an order of magnitude almost overnight.

Both have extremely large cargo capacity, and so fully constructed station modules could be lofted for assembly/docking on orbit. Instant stations.

Well, relatively anyway lol

Hopefully some folks are cognizant of these facts, and are positioning themselves to take advantage. It’d be a shame to wait another 5 – 20 years because people couldn’t look just a bit into the future and see the obvious possibilities.

Let NASA and their ilk have the ISS. Bring on the commercial stations!