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NSSDC Goes Private
Daniel Goldin, NASA administrator, announced that NASA was going to privatize the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) so it can serve as a data node for a select network of science hubs. The private NSSDC would increase the ease to locate, access, and use NASA's data. -
SpaceShipOne
SpaceShipOne, created by engineer Burt Rutan, was the first privately built flying machine ever to reach space. It made 17 flights in all, and achieved space flight on the 15th flight. SpaceShipOne retired 2 flights later, one flight on September 9, 2004, and another on October 4, 2004. -
Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004
The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 took away the restrictions of space travel and successfully allowed private resources to be funneled into the exploration of space, it was introduced on November 18, 2004, but was legalized on December 23, 2004. -
Rocketplane Kistler
Rocketplane Kistler is an innovative but underfunded enterprise, their NASA contact was abolished because of its failure to meet the agreed-upon financial milestones. -
NASA approves partial privatization
NASA has allowed the outsourcing of some of the equipment that enables its manned space missions to private contractors, after nearly half a century of constructing its own rockets and orbiters. -
Picture of privatized space
Avatar director, James Cameron, painted a picture of privatized space exploration, which suggested that the president's anemic NASA budget will make way for competitive market forces to jump-start the industry. -
A Falcon 9 rocket and a Cygnus capsule
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off ,and a Cygnus capsule docked with the International Space Station, but NASA wasn't the designer, builder, or operator of either of these spacecraft they were both designed and launched by private firms, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences. -
NASA's next space station will be private
William Gerstenmaier, an associate NASA administrator, says NASA would like to have the next space station be a private space station that is driven mainly by fundamental or basic research coming from the private sector.
