Over the last 100 years, brave Americans on the battlefield and industrious Americans back home played a major role in making the world’s citizens more free, secure, and prosperous. For most of that time, most of the world viewed us as—mostly—a force for good. Now we have another battle to fight.
Read MoreLet’s see if we can attach a dollar value to the international benefits of the public space program. The amount spent each year on international affairs by the federal government totals about $800 billion a year. That includes the State Department (about $50 billion), Defense ($600 billion), Energy ($24 million), and Veterans Affairs $150 billion). What if a fraction of that $800 billion went to the space program to help build our international standing?
Read MoreIt really wasn’t that long ago when the two greatest superpowers were vying to put satellites into space. Now, 50 nations have their own satellites in low Earth orbit. If you’re a Thailand, say, you can call Space Systems/Loral, a Canadian-owned company based in Palo Alto, California, and tell them you want to put a satellite into geostationary orbit for television broadcasting or military communications. You can have the thing in orbit 25,000 miles above Earth within two years.
