Space pork: NASA Watch.

• Author: Lott, Jeremy
• Position: Citings - Brief Article

FACED WITH A coming budget crunch, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is toying with a controversial solution: Sell off the space shuttles.

An October BBC report explains why the Bush administration is leaning toward this proposal. In keeping with recent elephantine overruns that render the Space Station Alpha a useless floating boondoggle in the sky, each NASA shuttle launch costs over $400 million. The fleet would be purchased by companies that would, in turn, be paid to launch the rockets at much lower costs.

Not everyone is happy. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), whose Web site proudly describes him as hailing from the Sunshine State's "Space Coast," has criticized the privatization plan on the grounds that it might hurt the national interest in a time of war. But even those without aerospace constituents doubt that the savings will be nearly as grand as...