Government Actions to Enable Space Business Parks

The governmental role in the successful development of commercial, large-scale Space Business Parks in low Earth orbit is vital but has not been characterized. This paper presents a specific agenda for such enabling action, tailored for the U.S. Government, in the following four areas: existing NASA programs to be completed; Earth-to-orbit transportation service performance goals to be met; the framework of laws and regulations to be established; and technologies to be developed and demonstrated. Without all these components, significant private investment in commercial space development is foreclosed. This agenda of government actions is presented to help advance the discussion among those government leaders, investors, developers and aerospace professionals interested in working together to establish Space Business Parks as a freely profit-driven focus for human spacefaring activity.