RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, OPERATION
In 1940 the NACA proposed a research laboratory for aeronautical engines to be located in Cleveland Ohio. The impetus for the proposal was the aero engine advances being made in England and Germany in preparation for the Second World War. American engine development was being left behind. The NACA, which was prominent in supporting the commercial aviation industry, made sure that it's proposal for the new lab stayed within the definition of fundamental research; "The essence of a government research laboratory was to tackle problems common to the entire industry and to see that the information was equally accessible to all companies in a given field." The NACA did not want to compete with industry. They did not want to even appear to be in the engine development field.
Development; The production of a finished product or acquisition of a finished product built to specifications. The government agency defines what direction the industry moves in and what products that industry produces to meet government and public needs. Industry does what the government tells them to do.
Operation; Government becomes the provider for it's own needs and the needs of the people.
THE KENNEDY CHALLENGE
President John Kennedy challenged America to "go to the Moon and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are difficult.", and we meet the challenge, and we went to the Moon, and it was not easy, and it was difficult, and it was expensive, and we never went back. There is now a generation of people alive who have never seen someone walking on the Moon and probably never will. SO I ISSUE A NEW CHALLENGE; Go to the Moon because it is easy, and fun, and because it is profitable, because then people will go to the Moon and stay on the Moon and we will never again have a generation of people who have never seen someone walking on the Moon.
"Invest in real estate, they don't make it any more."
Actually they do make real estate, Space is just full of brand new real estate. All the space, resources, and energy you could ever possibly want. Today there is a whole solar system free for the taking, tomorrow, the whole universe. Of course if you are heavily invested in the status quo, you don't want anything to change. Look what happened when the New World was colonized. Revolutions spread throughout Europe, - France, the 1848's, Russia. Even today the new European Union is an echo of the political explosion of American democracy. For the crown heads of Europe, the New World was a disaster. The question is how much control of the future of Space do the current powers that be need. Are they afraid of allowing Anyone to live Free in Space.
FEAR AND LOATHING IN SPACE
Strip miners, clear cutters, whale killers, smoke stack industries belching toxins into the air, baby seal butchers, nuclear waste pits, these are the things that space enthusiasts hope to keep out of Space by banning capitalism and private property from Space. Even though Space is far worse than any environmental disaster area on Earth, and even though every aspect of private enterprise is closely regulated by government agencies too numerous to count, space environmentalists will drag out the specter of "evil capitalism" to keep Space a place of supposed natural purity, and save Space from the evils of humanity. If more people would learn what every other place out there is really like, they would be so overly concerned.