He feels we are in danger of "losing something". My reply to a commenter below.
No, I'm certain he doesn't know better.
And it isn't that I said private enterprise is always better--nice
strawman you're trying to build there--but that in this case it
self-evidently is.
We are in danger of losing nothing of value, as long as the
government stays out of SpaceX's way. Aldrin's preferred way of doing
business (which is all we are in danger of losing) is a Shuttle Launch
System that achieves 4% of program goals and murders 14 people.
And yes I mean murder. The government management inherent to
Aldrin's approach leads to not merely potential but certain causes of
catastrophic failure to be ignored, a criminal level of negligence
rising to the category of murder. That sort of government entanglement
with launch vehicle design and operation leads directly to an attitude
that the volunteer astronauts should be grateful we allow them to risk
their life with what is only taxpayer dollars anyway. The sheer
contempt for life shown by NASA's ignoring Thiokol engineers RE
Challenger and not even assessing the damage RE Columbia is
breathtaking, and is consistent with the institutional mismanagement of
risk seen in the Apollo 1 fire. Forty years of doing wonderful things
at an abjectly unnecessarily high cost in blood and treasure.
Will SpaceX and it's future competitors lose vehicles and people? Will some be mismanaged?
Of course.
Then let the chips fall where they may, but not be propped up as
gold-plated zombie programs always getting gov dollars and never seeing
metal cut, let alone lofting payload at a reasonable cost.
May ULA/LockMart be let to rust, the iron oxide is more valuable than is their approach to space travel or structure.
The only appropriate role our national government necessarily has in
space, is using the military as required to assure freedom of
navigation, and that private property rights are kept from foreign
interference.
If NASA is to develop new tech, that's fine as long as they charge a
reasonable license fee. If NASA is to do research, that's fine, but
better the payload is lofted at $50 or $500 a pound on a Falcon, not
NASA's launch model of $8,000/# minimum.
