Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

Branson Christens First-Ever Commercial Spaceport in New Mexico

October 18, 2011, 4:57pm

Harris Kenny

This week Virgin Group media mogul Sir Richard Branson christened the first-ever commercial spaceport in Sierra County, New Mexico. The 110,000-square-foot spaceport cost over $200 million to build (thanks in part to taxpayer-financed support.)

The Ultimate Bridge to Nowhere

Saying goodbye to the space program

July 12, 2011

Gene Healy

Friday marked the space shuttle's swan song, as the Atlantis lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center for the program's 135th and final flight. "We are retiring the shuttle in favor of nothing," Michael Griffin, President Bush's NASA administrator, told The Washington Post. Gene Healy has a different take. Here, as usual, Healy writes, doing “nothing” gets a bad rap. Maybe we should be “in favor of nothing” until the advocates of federally funded spaceflight can come up with an argument for it that doesn’t make us spray coffee out of our noses.

New at Reason: Review of Federal Privatization Issues in 2010 and Today

February 16, 2011, 3:04pm

Adam Summers

The rollout of Reason Foundation's Annual Privatization Report 2010 continues today with the release of the Federal Government Privatization section, authored by Reason's Adam Summers and Anthony Randazzo.

NASA to Offer Kennedy Space Center Facilities to Private Aerospace Companies

February 6, 2011, 11:58pm

Adam Summers

The space shuttle fleet is about to be retired and some are wondering what will become of the Kennedy Space Center, which is geared mostly to support the shuttle program. To fill the gap left by the retiring shuttle fleet, NASA is offering private aerospace companies the opportunity to use some of the Kennedy Space Center's facilities.

E.T. Stay Home?

We haven't heard from space aliens and that might be good news.

January 4, 2011

Ronald Bailey

If extraterrestrial civilizations exist in our galaxy—and there are good reasons to think they do—it's probably a good idea to mind our own business and hope they do the same.

Space Cheese and Other Breakthroughs

Good news from SpaceX as NASA struggles to make room for private space companies.

December 17, 2010

Katherine Mangu-Ward

If you had been onboard the Dragon capsule last week as it was launched into orbit and then quickly retrieved after a Pacific Ocean splashdown, you would have enjoyed “a very nice ride” according to SpaceX founder Elon Musk. But the occupants of this test flight—the first successful launch and recovery of a pressurized capsule by a commercial space company—were limited to some ballast weights, souvenirs for the crew, and this wheel of Le Brouère cheese. The cheese was sent along a

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