Yesterday, the Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off toward the International Space Station. While not entirely significant on its own, this flight represents the first time that any shuttle has been used since the discovery of small hairline cracks in the fuel lines of all four orbiters in June.

Also, yesterday was a media parade of the so-called “shuttlecam” that transmitted live video to the news agencies of the shuttle liftoff. What disturbs us is that NASA spent $3.8 million dollars on what amounts to a useless PR campaign, while the recent budget cutbacks here and in Russia have led to the near abandonment of the International Space Station project.

All this, not to mention the aging technology of our space program, seems to be more than adequate grounds for concern. The shuttles are based on and built according to technologies of the 1970s. Despite claims of modernizing the space program, fundamentally, the system is the same. NASA’s hands are tied, losing more and more funding every year.

Ed Board calls for support to privatize NASA. Spun off into a non-profit scientific research institute, it can maintain its charter effectively.

Doing so would allow other private corporations to consider the possibility of space recreation or zero-gravity manufacturing. From there, our free-market economy would take over. The only possible downside would be mega-corporations trying to put their own satellites in orbit. For that, we propose government licensing of geosynchronous orbit positions. It makes sense that a government could give permission to have a large broadcast satellite over a specific part of its country.

While it may not be an easy plan to execute, the privatization of NASA (and of the space industy in general) could add a whole new significant industry to the U.S. economy, as well as maintain our place as a technological leader in space travel.