Whitehouse Hints It May Take Over SpaceX & Blue Origin Rockets

In an interview with Scientific American, Whitehouse space policy advisor Scott Pace has hinted that the US govt may be looking at possibly taking over the heavy lift rocket programs of SpaceX and Blue Origin:


https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/q-a-plotting-u-s-space-policy-with-white-house-adviser-scott-pace/


Scientific American asks:

NASA is spending billions of dollars developing its own heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System, as the centerpiece for future exploration activities beyond low Earth orbit. But private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are pursuing more reusable heavy-lift vehicles of their own that may be less expensive to build and operate. Is there room for public-private partnership there, and what might that look like?

Scott Pace replies:

Heavy-lift rockets are strategic national assets, like aircraft carriers. There are some people who have talked about buying heavy-lift as a service as opposed to owning and operating, in which case the government would, of course, have to continue to own the intellectual properties so it wasn’t hostage to any one contractor. One could imagine this but, in general, building a heavy-lift rocket is no more “commercial” than building an aircraft carrier with private contractors would be.

Naturally, this type of US govt takeover of American private space sector enterprises could significantly crimp their freedom of action and their business pursuits, by subordinating them into primarily servicing the US govt's strategic goals. This may however create a market opening for India's space sector to then fill. So this is a fluid situation, but it's definitely worth watching.