What is next for the US Space Program?

But one might hope that NASA withers on the vine and private enterprise is allowed to flourish. NASA evolved into a "type 2 bureaucracy" and has become a drug on space development. I could hope for the institution of prizes for milestones, though. The good thing about such things is that they'd encourage private enterprise development but would cost nothing unless the terms of the prize were fulfilled. The potential downside would be... government bureaucracy and the potential for graft, corruption and the twisting of the purpose of offering prizes into the manufacture of "golden Solyndrachutes," or "Boondoggles for Cronies".
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"Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people":

"First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.

"Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.

"The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization."