International Space Politics

The Russian invasion of Georgia, and the U.S. response to it, could have negative consequences for the U.S. space program, according to Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has actually flown on the space shuttle.

As things stand now, the only way American astronauts will have to reach orbit between the retirement of the shuttle in 2010 and the commencement of the Constellation program in 2015 will be aboard the Russian Soyuz. Sen. Nelson is concerned that if tensions continue to build between the two nations, Russia could either refuse to fly astronauts, or charge exorbitant fees to do so. That's what happens when somebody has a monopoly.

Which might mean the U.S. could try to break the monopoly. Adding funds to NASA to shorten the gap, as Sen. Obama recently suggested he might do, would be one approach. Another approach would be to increase support for private firms currently trying to develop manned orbital spacecraft and buy rides for astronauts to and from ISS from them. That market approach could eventually lead to a strong private space sector sooner than would've happened otherwise, which could be the key to really opening the space frontier once and for all.