Agreed. But it's going to be hard to convince NASA to move in that
direction. There is much institutional inertia involved.

I can imagine statements like, "We have to have our own launch vehicles for
astronauts because launching people is fundamentally different than
launching multi-billion dollar satellites". Such statements are based on
emotion rather than sound engineering and economics. Any launch vehicle
that the USAF trusts to launch multi-billion dollar payloads ought to be
fine for launching a few astronauts.

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


NASA will be unhappy because of the job losses involved in privatising.

Long term nasa should be just a exploration agency.

mundane everday tasks should be left for others.
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End the dangerous wasteful shuttle now before it kills any more astronauts....