You're right. He isn't pure left wing, but the CATS aspect is an exception. I do find his take on it typical of mushy headed liberals style thinking (or right winger thinking for that matter). Believe what you want and stick with despite evidence to the contrary because it sounds or feels right/good. Problems like multiple failures and high risks are easy to wish away for some people when they aren't right in your face.

CATS is obviously key to opening up space and must be part of private enterprise to achieve its full potential. However, expecting it to go fully private now overlooks the key business concept of "barriers to entry" (such as high initial investment cost - that's the way it is or regulation - possible issue) and the track record of such attempts. It's going to take a major investment to bring access into the realm of affordability for a large private enterprise market IMO, and I doubt the next step will happen without government support. A large market or an extremely lucrative one is needed to fund private industry based improvements.

Mir demonstrated the fallacy of space tourism as anymore than supplemental income at this point. The desire is there, but the cost is too high to attract a market large enough to cover costs.

Regards,
Mark