Earlier this week, President Trump announced the creation of a new branch of the U.S. military, a so-called “Space Force.” While those of us looking forward to the creation of Starfleet from “Star Trek” might have been mildly disappointed with the name, the creation of the U.S. Space Force is nonetheless an interesting opportunity to examine what works and what doesn’t when it comes to giant leaps for mankind.
There are two directions the Space Force could go: in the first direction, the private sector competes to develop products that are of interest not only to the military, but also to ordinary consumers. We’ve seen this in several applications from space travel in the last century: everything from baby formula to CAT scans to solar panels came from private sector development. Yes, they were at first connected to the space program, but the profit motive and shareholder accountability of U.S. companies drove a consumer-friendly competition to bring these things to the common man. There is no doubt that future research and development in space technology, in concert with ruthless free-market competition to adapt these technologies to profit-making ventures, will also help raise the standard of living in even the poorest families.
The other direction the Space Force might take is not as optimistic. When President Dwight D. Eisenhower talked about a “military-industrial complex” and other scholars of an “iron triangle,” what he and they were really getting at was a cozy, crony capitalist relationship between Big Government and Big Business. More often than not, when the coziness gets a little too friendly, the result is boondoggles, project failures, and overall waste of tax dollars.
The top case in point here, of course, is the tangled web of companies owned by Elon Musk. His most famous failure is the Tesla, a car literally brought to us by government and which the market would have killed years ago without government life support. He also is involved in the space rocket field via his company SpaceX, which is constantly angling for government grants and bailouts. Taxpayers have funded more than $5 billion and counting to this company, but the list of setbacks and delays merits its own section on the Wikipedia page about SpaceX. There seems to be little to no accountability, as these stories crop up in the press year after year. When a company, any company, is relieved from having to answer to shareholders and boards, and instead only has to endure a tough day in front of posturing politicians in a Beltway committee hearing, they tend to lose their natural and healthy business skepticism.
So how do we make sure the new U.S. Space Force works for taxpayers and consumers, and not simply for government contractors?
[Related: Trump can’t create a Space Force without Congress, Bill Nelson says]
For one thing, it’s important to bid out as much of the work of the Space Force as possible to the private sector. The A-76 circular has been an important document for decades, and the Trump administration should build upon prior efforts at privatization. This bidding ought to be very transparent, accept only the highest quality bids, and keep the value for taxpayers in mind.
Second, the Space Force ought to encourage the adaption of their technologies for private sector use. To the extent possible, companies ought to be able to onboard the Space Force technology into their own R & D operations. We don’t know what the next miracle prosthetic or memory foam product will look like, which is why we have to let the healthy competition of the free market bear that out. There’s a reason we all use the Waze application on our phones today instead of stand-alone car GPS maps, for example, and it isn’t because the government invented it — a private sector Israeli company did, and they made a boatload of money.
If the Space Force can work with and encourage robust business partnerships and competition, there are few limits to human achievement in this area. Space flight is something that animated the imaginations of countless Americans in the “New Frontier” era of NASA, and there’s no reason to limit ourselves. Americans are a pioneer people, and that includes space.
Yes, we should colonize the moon. Yes, we should set up an outpost on Mars. But by all means, let the private sector take the lead on helping to do so. The government will just screw it up.
Ryan Ellis (@RyanLEllis) is a senior policy adviser for the Family Business Coalition.
