One of CFE's most original goals is to present the French and European public with the wide range of political philosophies that thrive on the other side of the Atlantic. Amongst these opinions, the free market libertarian tenets - a radical and limited fringe of the political right - are probably what seems the most remote from mainstream French political thinking, where the State is revered and individualism remains suspicious by nature. The following opinion piece, by Edward L. Hudgins, applies radical laissez-faire economics to the space arena. He therefore offers a thought-provoking appraisal of current US space programs and a blueprint to radically remodel them. According to Hudgins, not only is the public sector ineffective in its management of non-military space programs, it is also illegitimate. Space conquest is a noble mission and it shouldn't remain the preserved realm of public agencies such as NASA. The latter should be dismantled and substantially privatised, space activities deregulated and private entities given property rights in space.

Ed Hudgins is Adjunct Scholar at the CATO Institute and director of the Washington office of the Objectivist Center. CATO and the Objectivist Center are two important libertarian think-tanks.