The Wall Street Journal is running a piece about the growing impulse behind the idea of NASA outsourcing to private companies everything from transporting astronauts to ferrying cargo into orbit. Quoting: "Proposals gaining energy in predominance call for contractors to build and run competing systems under economic contracts, by the book to federal officials, aerospace-industry embassy and others versant with the discussions. While the Obama management is still mulling options and hasn't made any final decisions, such a move would show a major policy shift away from decades of government-run rocket and astronaut-transportation programs such as the current space-shuttle fleet. ... In the face of severe federal budget constraints and a burgeoning commercial-space monopoly eager to play a larger role in exploring the solar system and perhaps beyond, ...a consensus for the new convergence seems to be bay tilt inside the White House as well as [NASA]. ... Under this scenario, a new breed of contractors would take over many of NASA's current responsibilities, freeing the agency to pursue longer-term, more ambitious goals such as new rocket-propulsion electronic components and manned missions to Mars. ...hese contractors would take the lead in servicing the International Space Station from the shuttle's planned continuing-care community around 2011 through at least the end of that decade."

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