WASHINGTON (States News Service) - The U.S. military and NASA this week touted the benefits of shifting control of the space industry to the private sector.

At conferences held Wednesday by the National Space Society, and Thursday by the Space Transportation and Satellite Industry associations, officials from the Air Force, NASA and the Commerce Department cited the benefits of making the industry competitive.

"It's in everyone's best interest," said Col. Robert Kehler, Chief of Space Superiority and Nuclear Deterrants, speaking at a panel on military use of commercial space services at Thursday's conference. "Fostering the commercial space industry is in large part going to enable our ability to successfully pursue national security launches."

With the EELV, the Air Force benefits from supporting two launch companies - Boeing and Lockheed Martin, said Col. Richard McKinney, deputy director of the U.S. Air Force's Directorate of Space and Nuclear Deterrents.

Having two providers competing may bring the U.S. world market share in expendable launch vehicles from 30 to 40 percent, and gives the Air Force more "operational flexibility" in terms of scheduling launches, McKinney said.

"The government is spending $1 million for two providers, where before we were spending $1.5 million for one provider," McKinney said. "I think this shows the value."

NASA, which has traditionally cornered the space market, is eager to transfer responsibility to the private sector to free up federal money for other missions and make its agency more efficient.

"We want to [commercialize] as much and as fast as possible," said Dan Tam, assistant to NASA Administrator for commercialization.

Tam, who says the government should be "one of many customers" in the space industry, believes the agency's possible budget cuts in Congress mean it can no longer dominate.

"We need commercialization for survival," he said, adding that turning over both space shuttles and the international space station to private hands as areas which free up NASA's resources to work on other projects.

[Commercialization] is a "continuous improvement process," said Gary Bachula, Acting Under Secretary for Technology in the Commerce Department. "We need stable, transparent policies with international standards."

In space, Commerce is sharing responsibility with other agencies. In the satellite navigation, for example, Commerce and State are trying to make Global Positioning System (GPS) a world standard.

There has been rapid growth in the commercial sector in recent years, especially since Congress passed the 1998 Commercial Space Launches Act, which encourages a private sector competition in the industry. Last year, there were four times as many U.S. commercial space launches as five years ago, Bachula said.