"Jochem Huhmann" wrote in message
...
Matt Wiser writes:

You're quite right on that. Reality will bite Space X and the other
Commercial Space providers in the ass when the House and Senate
reconcile their NASA budget bills.

SpaceX seems to have quite a few customers outside NASA. Most of them,
actually.


Jochem

--
But Space X hasn't flown people yet. They've only had one Falcon 9 test
flight. Once they start flying people on a regular basis, whether to ISS or
just plain orbital flights, they'll start to convince the skeptics (myself
included). There's a Space News article (I don't have the URL) where some
commercial advocates point this out. They were saying that the only way
they'll get Congress to support their efforts is to fly, and fly regularly.
I'd be more comfortable with an outfit like Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, or ULA
than with a startup, anyway. They've been around the block with EELVs, have
capsules in advanced development (Boeing's CST, Lockheed-Martin's Orion or
Orion derivative), and get the job done for NASA and DOD launching science
and national security payloads. But they still have to show that the job can
be done.