Thanks NA$A, Thanks for Nothing

NA$A, our national space agency, announced recently it would partner with private firms to send civilians to visit, and stay, at the International Space Station, in orbit around the world.  The cost wouldn't be cheap, possibly as much as $58 million for a month's stay.
 
This is all so much stellar crap.

Millions of us paid our taxes for decades to allow NA$A to build the space station, and now our public agency wants to limit those who go there just to millionaires?
I propose instead, Congress require NA$A to hold a lottery for seats and stays, free to the winners. Anyone who paid federal taxes during the decades of the 60s thru now, could have their names entered. (I would exclude the top executives of General Dynamic, Boeing, Thiokol, General Electric, Lockheed, and all the other major NA$A contractors who got Billions from us taxpayers for space projects, but whose corporations paid zip/zero/nada/nothing in federal income taxes during many of those years (a sad fact that continues to this day, thanks to Congress's indifference to these lobbying giants with deep pockets for political contributions.)


But Congress could restrict how NA$A handles the proposed space visits; and it should.

Now, that would be a lottery worth winning.

I'm just sayin'...