Jeff Findley ) wrote:

: "Scott Lowther" wrote in message
: ...
: Alan Anderson wrote:
: If the goal is more affordable spaceflight for people, there is a
: compelling argument to be made for returning NASA to its NACA roots and
: getting it out of the spaceflight operations business.
:
: You go right ahead and propose that to your Congresscritter. If there
: was an *actual* space industry, it'd make sense. The NACA didn't form
: before peopel needed it to improve airplanes... it formed *after* there
: were already airplanes buzzing around. A NACA-fied NASA would have no
: customers and no reason to be.

: No customers? What about all the startup companies looking to create low
: cost reusable (and semi-reusable) launch vehicles? What about the companies
: looking into providing commercial cargo delivery services to ISS?

: It's not too early for NASA to get out of the launch vehicle business.

Here is a question for you. If NASA were to pull out of the launch payload
business, then would there be enough customer revenue to sustain a
commercial launch vehicle business? I'm not saying I like the answer. All
I am saying is tha the answer reflects the current reality.

Eric

: Jeff
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