From Robert Costa, and Homer Hickham. (check Hickham's earlier posts, too).

Myself, I'm not that clear on this. I can understand some of the frustration but NASA long ago devolved into an engine for translating taxpayer dollars into contracts in various political districts. The number of people employed in those districts became far more important than whether or not any long-range space goal was being accomplished.

Getting the private sector into the business is long overdue, and it's time to see if the private launch companies can walk the walk. Unfortunately, there's still a lot of government money in that part of the business - a couple hundred million going to SpaceX alone - and it would be all too easy for the private entrepreneurs to step into the comfortable government contract hammock long occupied by space companies like Lockheed, Northrup and others.

The truth is that space, like any other human endeavor, will be commercially viable when someone figures out how to make money doing it. Maybe satellite launches or tourism will fill that bill. Maybe something we don't have yet.

We'll see.