Henry Spencer wrote:

In article ,
Robert =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Kitzm=FCller?=
wrote:
On the other hand, mars means a big deal to the public, and the public
would care who would set her or his foot down there first.

I see no sign of this.

Maybe it is just this way in Europe, but any mention of space in the
general media is bent towards mars (eg: new propulsion concept makes
marstrip possible).

has already been one successful launcher startup without outright
government backing -- Pegasus development was privately funded, by
OSC and Hercules --
and I think there is reasonable hope for more.

Pegasus got most of its contracts from NASA, US armed forces and the
like.

Quite true. So did most of the early US airlines, which got started on
Air Mail contracts. There's nothing particularly wrong with that.

Whose NB-52 was it the first Pegasus-vehicles launched from? This is
another indication, that while it might have used private money, OSC
as an organisation had close ties to NASA.

Robert Kitzmueller