Jeff Findley ) wrote:

: "Rand Simberg" wrote in message
: .. .
: On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 21:31:50 +0000 (UTC), in a place far, far away,
: (Eric Chomko) made the phosphor on my
: monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:
:
: Jeff Findley ) wrote:
:
: : "Eric Chomko" wrote in message
: : ...
: : I guess NASA should wait for the DOD to make a space plane and then
: use
: : it, rather than the other way around.
:
: : Actually, it would be better for NASA and DOD to allow private industry
: to
: : develop the next generation launch vehicle (without government funding
: or
: : oversight of development, but perhaps a guarantee of a certain level of
: : launch purchases if the vehicle proves successful).
:
: What incentive does private industry have to build a next generation
: launch vehicle?
:
: For profit.

: Eric seems to have missed this. It is my hope that a properly designed
: (reusable) commercial launch vehicle could reduce launch costs by at least
: two orders of magnitude.

No I haven't missed it! If space is so profitable, then where is the
private industry? Bigelow's hotel and the whole space tourism looks good
on paper but I don't see venture capitalists flocking to throw cash your
way.

Two orders of magnitude? So instead of folks like Tito paying $20,000,000
for a space vacation others can pay $200,000? I guess that is Branson's
dream.

: If this is indeed the case, any company with such
: a vehicle could gobble up much of the existing launch market in short order.
: Furthermore, such a reduction in costs would certainly open up new markets
: as well (including orbital tourism).

I'm sure NASA and other agencies would love to reduce lauch costs. Hell
launches as a COTS product is definitely a goal.

: The only losers in such a scenario are the existing launch providers who
: will loose billions of dollars in revenues due to the lost business. With

Yes, just like IBM lost billions due to the small computer market. Hurt um
so bad that they don't even exist anymore. Opps...

: Eric's proposal, the DOD program to build a new "space plane" would go to
: those very companies who stand to loose the most from cheaper access to
: space. No doubt they would run such a program much like Delta IV and Atlas
: V, with similar "reductions" in launch costs.

Do you honestly think that NASA and other governemnt agencies wouldn't
want to use your cheaper access to space? That they somehow like paying
more for launches?

Geez, I'm the one accused of being a conspiracy monger and here you are
convinced that the current group of government contractors in space are
keeping small companies out just to keep the price of launches high. Is
that what you believe?

I have news for you, if you had something then they'd use it. Further, if
you had something, you'd be showing it. Since nothing exists, all you
have is shaking fists and whines.

Eric

: Jeff
: --
: Remove icky phrase from email address to get a valid address.