The New York Times’ Kenneth Chang has an informative article about big changes at NASA…including the privatization of launches:

Mr. Obama’s request, which will be announced on Monday, would add $6 billion over five years to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s budget compared with projections last year. With the increase, NASA would receive $100 billion over the 2011 through 2015 fiscal years.

The new money would largely go to commercial companies that would provide transportation to and from the International Space Station. Until now, NASA has designed and operated its own spacecraft, like the space shuttles.

The commercial rockets would displace the Ares I, the rocket that NASA has been developing for the past four years to replace the shuttles, which are scheduled to be retired this year. Companies expected to seek the new space taxi business include United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin that launches rockets for the United States Air Force, and Space Exploration Technologies, a start-up company led by Elon Musk, who founded PayPal.

Besides the privatization issue, one thing to note here is that NASA is seeing an increase in their budget. This is despite Barack Obama’s pledge to freeze spending for all non-national security federal agencies. Barring alien invasion, NASA doesn’t count as national security. It bears monitoring how many other domestic agencies see an increase in there FY-2010 budget — the last budget before the pledged spending freeze.

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