The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has long recognized that to help the United States maintain a technological edge throughout the world, it must find ways to encourage and support the development of a domestic commercial space industry. In 1985, NASA began to provide grants and other types of support to the Centers for Commercial Development of Space to encourage the melding of the resources and talents of government, industry, and academic institutions for researching and developing space-related technologies that have potential commercial applications. After a limited period of grant support of 5 to 7 years, NASA expected the centers to become self-sufficient. GAO was asked to review the extent of private sector involvement in the Centers' programs, the centers' progress toward and prospects for self-sufficiency, and NASA's management of the program. Since the inception of the program, the centers have been increasing the number of organizations and companies with which they have become affiliated. More importantly, the number of such affiliates that represent industry has also been increasing. The proportion of centers; support provided by NASA grants has been increasing, not decreasing. The main reason for this pattern of increasing support is that NASA's overall grant support to help the centers fund the cost of access to space and the cost of unique hardware and facilities has increased. None of the center directors believe that their centers will be able to continue at their present levels of activity if grant support is withdrawn before 1995.
Commercial Use of Space: Many Grantees Making Progress, But NASA Oversight Could Be Improved. Report to the Chair, Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate
1991
46 pages
Report
No indication
English