May Offer Cash To Companies That Orbit Earth, Land On Moon

Far from seeking to limit or compete with private space ventures like Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne, NASA appears on the verge of offering its own version of the X-Prize.

"What we're looking for is innovation like what Burt Rutan brought to the table," said Michael Lembeck at NASA's office of exploration systems in an interview with Reuters. He said NASA is looking at offering between $10 million and $30 million for innovative, privately-funded spaceflights -- even "a couple hundred million dollars for the first private orbital flight."

Those comments are in line with the latest report from a presidential space commission on how best to send humans back to the Moon and, eventually, to Mars. Like NASA, the commission wants to do all it can to encourage private space travel.

But Lembeck did sound a cautionary note. Not every mission, he said, will be for private space adventurers. "We [NASA] have to take on the roles that are more risky, that require a large capital investment to achieve the goals," he said. A human mission to the moon might be one such goal, he said.

FMI: www.nasa.gov