Live From Washington, DC: The Space Shuttle Era is Over (Thank God!)

So the space shuttle Discovery has flown its last mission; it's been
towed over the nation's capital like a bruised Chevy after a
demolition derby before being deposited at the Udvar-Hazy air and
space musuem in northern Virginia.

Other space junkers -- Atlantis and Endeavour -- are being retired like
Brett Faver in a pair of Crocs, too, bringing to end an underwhelming
three decades of fruitless and tragic exploration of low-earth
orbiting patterns.

Let's face it: Once we beat the Russians to the moon, the national
rocket grew limper than Liberace at a speculum convention. NASA has
been dining out on a single 1969 hit longer than Zager and Evans.

The good news is that amateur hour is now over and the private space
race has begun. Where two Cold War superpowers failed, let a thousand
business plans bloom!

The future of space is in the hands of the guys behind Amazon, PayPal,
and Virgin. The force of competition will create endless possibilities
and unimaginable technologies. No more talking about how the space
program brought us Tang and Tempur-Pedic mattresses. We're going to
Mars, baby, in business class.

Virgin's Richard Branson has already signed up more stars than there
are in heaven and his regular press releases read like the headlines
at TMZ: Ashton Kutcher, Katy Perry, and Angelina Jolie have all
reserved space on the first civilian flights to the great beyond.

The International Space Station will continue as a government run
intergalactic DMV, but at least the spaceships shlepping materials and
mouthbreathers to and from it will soon be operated by private
vendors--at an expected 90 percent discount. That should put plenty
more celebrities --and civiliams-- in the mood to join the 30-mile-high
club.

The founder of BudgetSuites, Robert Bigelow, has already launched
experimental modules and is dreaming of putting affordable hotels
--complete with bedspreads soaked in alien DNA—in orbit and PayPal's
Elon Musk has said he wants to die on Mars. Preferably in a colony
established by SpaceX, his company that's hell bent not just on
leaving Earth but getting to the Red Planet in style.

Nobody knows exactly how private space exploration and
entrepreneurship will play out. But's its a lock that the next 30
years won't resemble our government-run space program's decades-long
failure to launch anything more inspiring than Josie and the Pussycats
in Outer Space.

Space out!

About 2:30 minutes.

Filmed by Joshua Swain and Jim Epstein. Edited by Meredith Bragg. Written by Nick Gillespie and Kennedy, who also hosts.

Visit Reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notifications when new material goes live.

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[xRedYetix]

This video is a disgrace. At what point do the willfully blind ideologues at "reason" TV lose all credibility? To not recognise that these private endeavours are only possible because Branson & Co. stand atop the shoulders of brave and thoroughly professional giants is beyond disingenuous.

If you really want to see "amateur hour" take a look at what the private sector has done for security at the 2012 Olympic Games, and how government stepped in to clear up the mess created by G4S.

[DRourk]

Not liking NASA does not equate to not liking science. Also, you shouldn't clump all Libertarians together based on this or any other vid, Reason does not represent all of them if even most of them. In addition you shouldn't you clump all of generalized generic group X together because of any other video either.

[wmsb72673]

Flip you maggot farmer!!!

Smeg off!!!

Your mother was a hampster and your father smelt of elderberries!!!

[ProjectORION89]

I love how this bimbo in the vid thinks that the private space sector has outdone NASA, and never mentions that the private space companies themselves acknowledge that NASA was essential to their success, thanks to NASA's CCP (Commercial Crew Program) and Commercial Crew & Cargo Program. Yeah, that's right - these private space companies were cultivated by a NASA program. A government program.

Without NASA, this may have never happened, or taken MUCH longer. NASA speeds up technology growth.

[ProjectORION89]

Good comment. What you forgot to add though is that the private companies this idiot woman is raving about so much have said themselves that what they are doing would not have been popular without NASA. Yes, NASA had a role to play in developing the commercial space sector. It was a program called CCP (Commercial Crew Program), and/or "Commercial Crew & Cargo" Program. Yes, that's right, it was a NASA GOVERNMENT PROGRAM.

Without NASA, you wouldn't have this for many MANY years, if at all.

[eirefrance]

You never did get around to educating me on this point. I guess you were too busy blaming the LIBOR scandal on the govt.

[StateExempt]

I would put my money in SpaceX and Virgin Galactic over NASA any day.

[Sergio Botero]

The space industry should be run by corporations like Weyland-Yutani instead of governments...

[an50331]

the space program was the one gov program i could live with. sure there was waste, but we did so much, far more than the private sector ever could

[Chad Snow]

Someone finally tells it like it is!!