WASHINGTON -- NASA means business. Thats the gist of a sweeping new document floating around the halls of the space agency. The document, still in draft form, is tagged Enhanced Strategy for the Development of Space Commerce.

One upshot of the strategy is for NASA to reestablish a Spaceflight Participant Program. The strategy recognizes "human space travel as a new area of commerce," and sets the stage that allows members of the general public to become space travelers, making use of NASA assets to experience orbital flight.

In another bold move, the proposed strategy calls for employing a qualified non-governmental organization entity to manage the U.S. share of International Space Station (ISS) utilization. "While this may only be a first step, it is essential to enabling space commerce in low-Earth orbit," the draft policy states.

In a cover letter introducing the proposed strategy, NASAs chief, Daniel Goldin, notes that "opportunities to foster the commercial use of space exist in all of the NASA Enterprises and program areas."

Those opportunities fall into five sectors, Goldin states: Technology, research, infrastructure and facilities, media and communications, and space travel and exploration.

Fostering a robust commerce in space can help NASA undertake future objectives, Goldin notes.

"The emergence of viable commercial business operations in space will allow NASA to focus increased resources on the higher risk activities that the private sector is unable to pursue," Goldin said.

As outlined in the draft strategy, NASA intends to shoot for five strategic goals:

• Remove barriers to space commerce;
• Use market tools and commercial strategies in furtherance of NASAs mission and strategic plan;
• Provide opportunities for new commercial space markets;
• Support free and fair trade in space goods and services; and
• Strategically align NASA participation in commercial activities with the Agencys mission and values.

The NASA space commerce document has gone through many changes, even within the last few weeks, said Lori Garver, a former NASA plans and policy chief. "Its somewhat fluid," she said.

As such, some individuals reading the document are taking a wait-and-see, devil in the details approach. Just how aggressive NASA will be in implementing words remains to be seen.

A NASA team has been busily working on the strategy for some 6 months. The effort is being led by Courtney Stadd, NASA Chief of Staff, and a Bush White House official.

Garver, now director of space programs at DFI International here, said the document is unique. "The space community can now look at this document and see that NASA is serious," about developing space commerce, she said.

Parts of the strategy can be implemented as purely agency policy. Other aspects of the strategy would need to be codified into national space policy, Garver said.

Garver said, to her knowledge, NASA has not previously released an actual policy document like this, independently, on commercialization. "Its the first thing coming out of the Bush Administration for space. Although people have talked about his kind of thing for years, NASA has now written it down," she said.

"I would agree that 90 percent of the work is to be done in the implementation. But this is a big 10 percent," Garver said. The policy will allow for new and interesting partnerships between NASA and the private sector, she said.

Garver said that the prospective policy ties together a lot of disparate parts of commercialization that have been going on over the years. It puts those pieces of the space commercialization puzzle into one place and explains what NASA plans to focus on in the near term, she said.

To share Americas space program with the public, the NASA document calls for new relationships with the entertainment industry.

From films, stage productions and software, to theme parks and websites - the NASA document calls for building new bridges with entertainment and traditional news and information industries.

While the policy doesnt set up a public waiting list for those wanting to fly into space, the document underscores the immediacy of public space travel.

NASA stands ready, the draft policy states, to share its technical know-how and help the private sector build and operate commercial space transportation systems to accommodate human space travel.

In advance of available commercial capabilities to support public space travel, NASA now plans to reactivate the Spaceflight Participant Program - a concept dropped after the tragic loss in 1986 of space shuttle Challenger and its crew, including school teacher, Christa McAuliffe.

"NASA will not utilize the Spaceflight Participant Program in a manner that would compete with any similar legitimate domestic private sector venture," the proposed NASA commercial policy states.