SIETZEN EDITORIAL: Frank Sietzen looks at the Space Age at 45: Spacelift Sputnik +45 = A New Strategic Framework for Space
If we’re going to have a national space program, it needs a clear and consistent goal, a clear rationale for the public to support it, and demonstrable benefits to U.S. industry. Partnering for its own sake is a bad idea, as it weakens the domestic aerospace industry, and commercialization and the divestiture from launch vehicle operations should be pursued aggressively but with interim support from government to get private ventures off the ground.
It’s all been said before, but the article is a good condensation of these proposals.