wrote in
oups.com:

What is the purpose of reinventing an earth to LEO vehicle besides
providing juicy low risk contracts for the US aerospace industry when a
perfectly usable Soyuz is available off the shelf?

To reduce the technical and schedule risk for Spiral 2, by giving US design
teams more experience. Spiral 1 is not intended to result in an
"operational" vehicle.

Yes there is a law that NASA has successfully used to support its not
invented here strategy, but the cost and time of Spiral 1 is an
enormously high price to pay for reinventing yet another wheel. Wheels
are useless in space.

The law will likely remain in place because US lawmakers see Iran
nonproliferation as being far more important than space exploration.

--
JRF

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