Up to now space exploration has been more or less the exclusive domain
of the Federal Government. It seems likely that this situation will not
change much in the near future. But the question finally arises: Is the
nature of space such that the traditional American concept of private
enterprise can have no place in it?
On this score there is debate. Recently, however, there have been
indications that businessmen feel they will be able to conduct certain
business operations and services in space.
The space frontier will inevitably increase the scale of thinking
and risk taking by business. When we are dealing with space, we
are dealing with a technology that requires a planetary scale to
stage it; decades of time to develop it; and much bigger
investments to get across the threshold of economic return than is
customary in business today. Business must now think in
international terms, and in terms of the next business generation.
It must step up to the big risks with the same vision that enabled
an earlier generation of builders to push railroad tracks out
across the wilderness and lay the foundations of our modern
economy.[43]
Incidentally, it should be pointed out that space exploration is already
encouraging the formation of business of all sizes. Myriads of small
businesses have sprung up, many of them "suppliers of specialty
equipment for the larger concerns that have responsibility for major
components and systems."[44]
To what extent will private enterprise become involved? Here is one
view:
As the years pass by, and space apparatus becomes more reliable,
and the work of obtaining scientific data from space acquires a
more routine character--certainly many of the necessary operating
facilities could be put on a self-liquidating, private-industry
basis.
Probably the first opportunities for private investment will come
in the commercial use of satellites. Looking even further into the
future of space exploration, perhaps there would be economic
justification for a privately owned launching service that would
put objects into space for the peaceful purposes of friendly
governments, international agencies, industry, and the
universities.
The base itself, from which the commercial launching service would
operate, might be modeled after a port authority. Such a
nonmilitary, international space port could develop as a center for
many private enterprises related to space operations. These might
include service and maintenance facilities; data-processing
services; space communication centers; laboratory facilities;
standardized equipment for satellites and other space vehicles;
fuel supplies; medical services; biological services; and general
supplies.
Moving away from the idea of a commercial space port, must all
future tracking stations, observatories, and data-processing
stations be Government owned? How about experimental stations for
the simulation of space environments? How about laboratories and
stations actually constructed in space? Or will privately owned
facilities one day offer these services on an international basis
to governments, industries, universities, and international
agencies?
Most likely the first businesses suitable for commercial operation,
using space technologies, will be worldwide communication by
satellite, private weather forecasting, and high-speed Earth
transport by rocket.[45]
[Illustration: FIGURE 9.--The electric and electronic needs of
the space program are requiring more and more skilled labor.]